tihvavy  of  Che  trheolo^icd  Seminar;? 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

Rufus  H.  LeFevre 
.5.f6>\ 


Of  P 


m^ 


■^^'  I  ^  FEB  11  1953  ^ 

APPEAL     ^*''"  ""^ 


TO 


MATTER  OF  FACf  AHD  COMMOtT  SENSE 

OR, 

A  RATIONAL  DEMONSTRATION 

OF 

MAN'S  CORRUPT  AND  LOST  ESTATE, 

BY  J.  FLETCHER. 


The  Son  of  man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  tliat 
which  was  lost. — Luke  xix.  10. 


NEW    AND    REVISED    EDITION. 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION 


BY   DAVID    EDWARDS. 


DAYTON,  O. 

PUBLISHED    BY    ORDER    OF    THE    TRUSTEES   OF    THE    PaiNTIN« 
ESTABJ.ISHMENT  OF  THE  UNITED  BRETHREN  IN  CHRIST. 

1855 


stereotyped  at  the 

TTNITED  BRETHREN  STEREOTYPE  FOUNDRY, 

Corner  of  Main  and  Fourtli  Streets, 

Dw'TON,  Ohio. 


CONTENTS 


AN  INTRODUCTION. 

FIRST   PART. 

1  flE  dpctrine  of  man's  corrupt  and  lost  estate  is  stated 
at  laM-ge,  in  the  words  of  the  Prophets,  Apostles,  and 
Jesuri  Christ. 

SECOND   PART. 

Man  is  considered  as  an  inhabitant  of  the  natural 
world,  and  his  fall  is  proved  bj  arguments  deduced 
from  the  misery,  in  which  he  is  now  undeniably  involv- 
ed :  compared  with  the  happiness  of  which  we  cannot 
help  conceiving  him  possessed  when  he  came  out  of  the 
hands  of  his  gracious  Creator. 

A  view  of  this  misery  in  the  following  jparticulars  : 
I,  The  disorders  of  the  globe  we  inhabit,  and  the 
dreadful  scourges  with  which  it  is  visited.  II.  The 
deplorable  and  shocking  circumstances  of  our  birth. 
III.  The  painful  and  dangerous  travail  of  women.  IV. 
The  untimely  dissolution  of  still-born  or  new-born  chil- 
dren. V.  Our  natural  uncleanness,  helplessness,  igno- 
rance, and  nakedness.  VI.  The  gross  darkness  in 
which  we  naturally  are,  both  with  respect  to  God  and  a 
future  state.  VII.  The  general  rebellion  of  the  brute 
creation  against  us.  VIII.  The  various  poisons  that 
lurk  in  the  animal,  vegetable,  and  mineral  world,  ready 
to  destroy  us.  IX.  The  heavy  curse  of  toil  and  sweat, 
to  which  we  are  liable  ;  instances  of  which  are  given  in 
the  hard  and  dangerous  labors  of  the  author's  parishion- 
ers. X,  The  other  innumerable  calamities  of  life. 
And,  XI.    The  pangs  of  death. 

THIRD   PART. 

Man  is  considered  as  a  citizen  of  the  moral  world,  a  free 
agent,  accountable  to  his  Creator  for  his  tempers  and  con- 
duct ;  and  his  falHs  farther  demonstrated  by  arguments 
drawn  from — XII.  His  commission  of  sin.  XIII.  His 
omission  of  duty.  XIV,  The  triumphs  of  sensual  ap- 
petites over  his  intellectual  faculties.  XV.  The  cor- 
ruption of  the  powers  that  constitute  a  good  head  ;  the 
understanding,  imagination,  memory,  and  reason.  XVI. 
The  depravity  of  the  powers  which  form  a  good  heart ; 
the  win,  conscience,  and  affections.    XVII.    His  mani- 

(3) 


4  ^ONTiiNTS. 

fest  alienation  from  God.  XVIII.  His  amazing  disr« 
gard  even  of  his  nearest  relatives.  XIX.  His  unac 
countable  unconcern  about  himself.  XX.  His  detesta- 
ble tempers.  XXI.  The  general  outbreathings  of  hu- 
man con'uption  in  all  individuals.  XXII.  The  uni- 
versal overflowing  of  it  in  all  nations  ;  five  objections 
answered.  XXIII.  Some  striking  proofs  of  this  de- 
pravity in  the  general  propensity  of  mankind  to  vain, 
irrational,  or  cruel  diversions.  And,  XXIV.  In  the 
universality  of  the  most  ridiculous,  impious,  inhuman, 
and  diabolical  sins.  XXV.  The  aggravating  circum- 
stances attending  the  display  of  this  corruption. 
XXVI.  The  ni9.ny  ineffectual  endeavors  to  stem  its  tor- 
rent. XXVII.  The  obstinate  resistance  it  makes  to 
Divine  grace  in  the  unconverted.  XXVIII.  The 
amazing  struggles  of  good  men  with  it.  XXIX.  The 
testimony  of  the  heathens  and  Deists  concerning  it. 
And  after  all,  XXX.  The  preposterous  conceit  which 
the  unconverted  have  of  their  own  goodness. 

FOURTH    PART. 

Man  is  considered  as  an  inhabitant  of  the  Christian 
world ;  and  his  fallen  state  is  further  proved  by  six 
Scriptural  arguments.  The  heads  of  these  arguments 
are,  XXXI.  The  impossibility  that  fallen,  corrupt  Adam 
should  have  had  an  upright,  innocent  posterity  ;  with  an- 
swers to  some  capital  objections.  XXXII.  The  spirit- 
uality and  severity  of  God's  law,  which  the  unrenewed 
man  continually  breaks.  And,  XXXIII,  Our  strong 
propensity  to  unbelief,  the  most  destructive  of  all  sins, 
according  to  the  Gospel.  XXXIV.  The  absurdity  of  the 
Christian  religion  with  respect  to  infants  and  strict  mor- 
alists. XXXV.  The  harshness  and  cruelty  of  Christ's 
fundamental  doctrines.  And,  XXXVI.  The  extrava- 
gance of  the  grand  article  of  the  Christian  faith,  if 
mankind  are  not  in  a  corrupt  and  lost  estate. 

FIFTH   PART. 

The  doctrine  of  man's  fall  being  established  by  such 
a  variety  of  arguments  ;  first,  a  few  natural  inferences 
are  added  :  secondly,  various  fatal  consequences  attend- 
ing the  ignorance  of  our  lost  estate  :  thirdly,  the  un- 
speakahle  advantaqcs  arising  from  the  right  knowledge 
of  it 


INTRODUCTION  TO  REVISED  EDITION, 


Of  all  the  writers  wlio  have  taken  part  in  the  great 
"  conflict  of  ages  "  on  the  question  of  human  depravity, 
none  have  excelled  John  Fletcher  in  plainness  and  sim- 
plicity of  style  and  force  of  argument.  His  "  Appeal 
to  Matter  of  Fact "  has  never  been  answered.  Thous- 
ands have  been  rescued  by  it  from  the  various  labyrinths 
of  the  Pelagian  heresy  and  led  to  embrace  the  doctrine 
of  man's  native  depravity.  This  little  volume  has  been 
in  circulation  for  nearly  a  centuiy,  and  it  is  as  popular 
now  as  when  it  was  first  presented  to  the  public.  It  is 
one  of  the  few  productions  which,  like  "  Paradise  Lost " 
and  "  Pilgrim's  Progress  "  is  destined  to  live  and  exert  a 
powerful  influence  long  after  the  immediate  causes 
which  gave  rise  to  it  have  been  forgotten. 

To  those  who  are  acquainted  with  this  work  and  ap- 
preciate the  sentiments  advocated  by  it,  no  apology  is 
needed  for  presenting  to  the  public  a  new  and  revised 
edition.  No  change  has  been  attempted  in  the  author's 
style  or  arrangement,  nor  have  his  sentiments  been  al- 
tered. Some  matter  which  did  not  strengthen  the  argu- 
ment nor  bear  particularly  upon  the  main  design  of  the 

work  has  been  left  out.     The  most  important  omisions 

(5-) 


6  INTRODUCTION   TO   REVISED   EDITION. 

were,  the  arguments  from  the  ritual  of  the  Church  of 
England,  to  which  Mr.  Fletcher  belonged,  and  a  digres- 
sion on  the  evidences  of  the  truth  of  the  Bible.  As 
now  presented,  it  is  a  plain,  straight-forward,  and  it  might 
be  added,  unanswerable  treatise  upon  man's  fallen  state. 

The  doctrine  dfecussed  in  these  pages  should  not  be 
viewed  as  a  merely  speculative  sentiment  for  the  trial  of 
the  skill  of  theologians  ;  it  is  of  the  utmost  practical 
importance  to  the  cause  of  religion,  as  the  following 
brief  remarks  will  show  : 

A  denial  of  the  doctrine  of  man's  total  depravity  pre- 
pares the  way  for  almost  all  other  gross  errors.  Wrong 
views  upon  this  subject  almost  inevitably  lead  to  wrong 
views  upon  other  truths  of  vital  importance  to  the  Chris- 
tian system.  Hence  nearly  all  classes  of  errorists  that 
are  fundamentally  and  practically  wrong  on  other  points, 
deny  the  doctrine  advocated  in  these  pages.  I  refer  par- 
ticularly to  such  as  are  skeptical  in  reference  to  the 
Bible,  the  new  birth,  or  the  agency  of  the  Holy  'Spirit 
in  man's  salvation.  Deists,  Universalists,  Disciples, 
[  or  Campbellites  ]  and  the  various  classes  of  Unitarians 
deny,  in  whole  or  in  part,  the  natural  corruptions  of  the 
human  heart ;  while  on  the  other  hand,  it  has  always 
been  a  leading  sentiment  in  the  creeds  of  those  bodies 
of  christians  most  distinguished  for  their  usefulnesss  in 
turning  men  from  darkness  to  light  and  from  sin  to  holi- 
ness.    I'o  this  there  may  be  exceptions  ;  some  persons 


INTRODUCTION    TO    RKVISED    EDITIGX.  / 

«rf  good  hearts  who  were  unsound  on  the  doctrine  of 
buman  depravity  may  have  been  to  some  extent  useful ; 
arid  some  churches  of  note  that  have  held  this  doctrine, 
have  embraced  errors,  and  by  sinful  alliances  lost  their 
power  to  accomplish  good.  But  this  by  no  means  de- 
stroys the  position  here  assumed,  viz.,  that  those  persons 
most  distinguished  in  history  as  great  religious  re- 
formers, and  those  churches  which  have  been  known  as 
the  most  evangelical  in  spirit  and  practice,  have  held 
the  doctrine  of  man's  coniplete  depravity  as  a  fundamen- 
ts,! principle.  This  may  be  set  down  as  an  argument 
for  the  truth  of  the  docti'ine  in  question,  as  well  as  an 
evidence  of  its  practical  importance  in  preserving  the 
mind  from  dangerous  errors. 

Our  appreciation  of  the  richness  and  abundance  of  the 
grace  of  Christ  depends  very  much  upon  the  views  we 
entertain  of  man's  lost  estate.  If  he  is  but  partially 
fallen,  or,  what  amounts  to  the  same  thing,  hias  been 
really  restored  ages  before  he  was  born,  he  needs  the  less 
grace  to  save  him.  His  dependence  on  Christ  for  salva- 
tion can  not  be  greater  than  the  consciousness  of  his 
necessities.  If  he  is  totally  fallen  he  needs  a  complete 
Savior.  So  far  is  this  doctrine  from  undervaluing  the 
grace  cf  Christ  in  the  atonement,  that  it  magnifies  it. 
None  exalt  Jesus  more  than  those  who  advocate  this 
sentiment ;  none  cleave  to  him  more  closely,  nor  trust 
him  more  unwaveringly  than  those  who  admit  that  they 


8  INTEODUCTION    TO    REVISED    EDITION. 

have  no  nioral  strength  or  goodness  of  their  own.  The 
very  fact  of  their  deeply  fallen  state  induces  them,  as  by 
a  moral  necessity,  to  cast  all  their  cares  and  burdens 
upon  him.  Finding  no  help  in  themselves,  they  turn  to 
the  cross  as  the  only  hope  of  a  lost  world,  saying,  peni- 
tently and  believingly, 

"  'Tis  all  my  hope  and  all  my  plea. 
For  me  the  Savior  died." 
Their  practical  creed  on  this  point  may  be  summed 
up  in  two  brief  sentences — "  withpift  Christ  we  can  do 
nothing, — ^but  with  him  we  can  do  all  things"  They 
sing  the  God-honoring  song  of  grace,  grace,  grace  I  at 
every  step  of  progress  in  the  work  of  their  ssdvation, 
from  its  first  foundation  to  the  topstone. 

This  doctrine  has  an  important  bearing  upon  personal 
experience.  No  person  can  seriously  seek  for  that 
which  is  already  in  his  possession  ;  no  one  will  seek  for 
a  degree  of  holiness  which  he  is  not  conscious  of  need- 
ing. Therefore,  in  proportion  to  the  degree  of  moral 
strength  and  holiness  he  possesses  by  nature  will  be  his 
eflEbrts  for  purifying  grace.  New  discoveries  of  the  de- 
pravity of  the  heart  both  precede  and  follow  every  ad- 
vance step  in  true  holiness.  A  sight  of  our  natural 
corruptions  will  lead  the  soul  to  unite  with  the  Psalmist 
in  his  fervent  supplications  for  a  clean  heart  and  a  right 
spirit ;  and  then  again,  the  new  light  which  is  reflected 
back  upon  the  heart  from  the  divine  holiness  as  we  ap- 


INTRODUCTION   TO    REVISED    EDITION.  9 

proacli  nearer  the  throne,  brings  to  view  hitherto  onseeD 
formB  of  refined  selfishness, — which  in  their  turn  show 
the  necessity  of  another,  and  another  approach  to  the 
fountain  that  cleanses  from  all  sin.  In  this  way  those 
who  see  and  deplore  their  inbred  corruptions  are  led  for- 
ward from  step  to  step  ;  while  those  who  deny  the  natu- 
ral inherent  corruption  of  their  nature  are  generally 
satisfied  with  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  without  subse- 
quently seeking  to  be  cleansed  from  all  the  filthiness  of 
the  flesh  and  spirit, — for  the  very  good  reason  that  they 
acknowledge  no  such  pollution. 

The  character  of  revivals  is  also  much  affected  by  the 
doctrine  of  depravity.  That  preachir^  which  either 
discards  man's  total  helplessness  and  corruption,  or 
places  it  in  the  back  ground  as  an  unimportant  senti- 
ment, will  produce  but  superficial  results.  The  more 
thoroughly  the  hearts  of  sinners  are  probed  and  search- 
ed by  the  humiliating  truth,  that  they  are  entirely  undone 
and  altogether  filthy,  the  more  deep  and  thorough  will 
their  repentance  and  conversion  be,  and  consequently, 
the  more  lasting  the  fruits  of  revivals.  It  is  owing  to 
the  want  of  such  preaching  that  many  of  the  converts  of 
modern  revival  efforts  are  so  sickly  and  short-lived.  We 
need  more  of  the  searching,  apostolic  preaching  of  olden 
times,  to  lay  open  the  hearts  and  arouse  the  sleeping 
consciences  of  sinners.  Men  must  be  made  to  see  their 
depravity,  the  deceit  and  desperate  wickedness  of  their 


10  INTRODUCTION   TO   REVISED    EDITION. 

hearts  before  they  will  cry  out  as  they  did  tinder  the  pun- 
gent preaching  of  the  apostles,  "  Men  and  Brethren,  what 
shall  we  do?"  A  proper  presentation  of  the  plain 
truths  contained  in  this  "  Appeal "  would  produce  sim- 
ilar results  in  this  age. 

The  doctrine  of  the  fall  of  man  has  been  fruitful  in 
controversies.  Good  men  have  diflFered  widely  as  to  the 
extent  and  degree  of  man's  depravity.  And  it  is  to  be 
sincerely  regi'etted,  that  some  have  given  too  much  evi- 
dence of  the  existence  in  their  own  hearts  of  the  very 
evil  about  which  they  were  disputing.  In  numerous 
instances,  charity  has  been  lost,  confidence  destroyed, 
and  the  Church  of  Christ  made  to  suffer,  while  satan  has 
gained  a  victory  over  both  parties.  0  for  the  tears  of  a 
Jeremiah,  to  weep  day  and  night  oVer  the  desolations  ot 
Zion  in  consequence  of  the  bitterness  and  selfishness  <rf 
her  theological  wranglers ! 

The  differences  of  opinion  among  the  true  followers^ 
of  Christ  upon  this  subject  is  often  more  seeming  than 
real.  And  those  which  do  exist  are  more  frequently  on 
impractical,  speculative  points  than  upon  the  doctrine 
itself  as  a  fact  of  revelation  and  every  day  observation. 
Brethren  aiming  at  the  same  thing  should  exercise  char-' 
ity  and  toleration  toward  each  other. 

Yet  there  might  be  cases  where  toleration  would  not 
be  a  virtue.  If  a  brother  or  a  church  hold  fundamental- 
ly wrong  views,  such  as  lead  to  sin  or  prevent  salvation. 


INTEODUCTION   TO   REVISED    EDITION,  11 

sucli  brother  or  church  should  not  be  fellowshipped. 
But  it  is  wrong  to  divide  or  distract  the  body  of  Christ 
for  a  useless  abstraction,  hatched  in  the  brain  of  some 
would-be  champion  of  orthodoxy.  The  writer  would 
earnestly  recommend  to  those  persons  or  societies  that 
may  be  troubled  with  harrassing  controversies  upon  this 
subject,  to  agree  to  exercise  Christian  tolerance  toward 
one  another  on  all  matters  of  opinion  which  do  not  vi- 
tally affect  man's  salvation.  For  instance ;  let  those 
who  believe  that  all  who  anive  to  years  of  understand- 
ing are  so  depraved,  that  a  new  spiritual  birth  is  abso- 
lutely necesgary  as  a  condition  of  entering  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  be  considered  substantially  and  practically 
orthodox,  whatever  their  views  may  be  in  reference  to 
the  kind  and  degree  of  depravation  that  belongs  to  in- 
fants. God  will  take  care  of  them — ^let  us  labor  earnest- 
ly and  unitedly  to  save  those  who  are  old  enough  to 
understand  the  declaration  of  the  bible — "  except  ye  re- 
pent ye  shall  all  perish."  Let  every  one  be  more  anxious 
to  save  souls  than  to  conquer  an  opponent,  or  propagate 
a  favorite  theory,  and  all  these  little  speculative  differ- 
ences will  soon  be  forgotten.  The  Spirit  of  Christ  will 
descend  upon  us,  and  melt  our  hearts  with  his  love  ; 
and  then,  when  ^filled  with  the  Spirit  that  indited  the 
Scriptures,  we  shall  find  no  difficulty  in  seeing  eye  to 
eye  on  all  the  great  truths  that  are  of  vital  interest  to  the 
souls  of  men.  That  this  period  may  be  hastened  is  the 
sincere  prayer  of  the  editor  of  this  revised  edition. 


AUTHOK'S  INTEODUCTION. 


In  religious  matters  we  easily  run  into  ex- 
tremes. Nothing  is  more  common  than  to  see 
people  embracing  one  error,  under  the  plausible 
pretense  of  avoiding  another. 

Many,  through  fear  of  infidelity,  during  the 
night  of  ignorance,  and  storm  of  passion,  run 
against  the  wild  rocks  of  superstition  and  en- 
thusiasm ;  and  frequently  do  it  with  such  force, 
that  they  malce  shipyrrech  of  the  faith,  and  have 
little  of  godliness  left,  except  a  few  broken  pieces 
of  its  form. 

Numbers,  to  shun  that  fatal  error,  steer  quite 
a  contrary  course ;  supposing  themselves  guided 
by  the  compass  of  reason,  when  they  only  follow 
that  of  prejudice ;  with  equal  violence  they  dash 
their  speculative  brains  against  the  opposite  rooks 
of  Deism  and  profaneness ;  and  fondly  congrat- 
ulate themselves  on  escaping  the  shelves  of  fan- 
aticism, while  the  leaky  bark  of  their  hopes  is 
ready  to  sink,  and  that  of  their  morals  is,  per- 
haps, sunk  already.  Thus,  both  equally  over- 
look sober,  rational,  heart- felt  piety,  that  lies 
between  those  wide  and  dangerous  extremes. 

To  point  out  the  happy  medium  which  they 
have  missed,  and  call  them  back  to  the  narrow 
path  where  reason  and  revelation  walk  hand  in 
hand,  is  the  design  of  these  sheets.  May  the 
Father  of  lights  so  shine  upon  the  reader's  mind, 

13 


14  AUTHOK'S    INTRODUCTION. 

that  he  may  clearly  discover  Truth,  and,  not- 
"with standing  the  severity  of  her  aspect,  prefer 
her  to  tlie  most  soothing  error ! 

If  he  is  one  of  those  who  affect  to  be  the 
warm  votaries  of  reason,  he  is  entreated  to  be  a 
close  thinker,  as  well  as  a  free  thinker ;  and  with 
careful  attention  to  consider  reason's  dictates, 
before  he  concludes  that  they  agree  with  his  fa- 
vorite sentiments.  He  has,  no  doubt,  too  much 
candor  hot  to  grant  so  equitable  a  request ;  too 
much  justice  to  set  aside  matter  of  fact;  and 
too  much  good  sense  to  disregard  an  appeal  t-o 
common  sense. 

Should  he  incline  to  the  opposite  extreme,  and 
cry  down  our  rational  powers,  he  is  desired  to 
remember,  right  reason,  which  is  tliat  I  appeal 
to,  is  a  ray  of  the  light  that  enlightens  every  man 
that  comes  into  the  world,  and  a  beam  of  the  eter- 
nal Logos,  the  glorious  Sun  of  righteousness. 

God,  far  from  blaming  a  proper  use  of  the 
noble  faculty  by  which  we  are  chiefly  distin- 
guished from  brutes,  graciously  invites  us  to  the 
exercise  of  it :  Come  now,  says  he,  and  let  us 
reason  together.  Jesus  commends  the  unjust 
steward,  for  reasoning  better  upon  his  wrong, 
than  the  children  of  light  upon  their  right  prin- 
ciples. Samuel  desires  the  Israelites  to  stand 
still,  that  he  may  reason  with  them  before  the 
Lord.  St  Peter  charges  believers  to  give  an 
answer  to  every  one  that  askcth  them  a  reason 
of  their  hope.  And  St.  Paul,  who  reasoned  so 
conclusively  himself,  intimates  that  wicked  men 
are  unreasonable  ;  and  declares  that  a  total 
dedication  of  ourselves  to  God.  is  our  reasona- 


author\s  intkodcction.  15 

B-LE  service ;  and,  while  he  challenges  the  vain 
disputers  of  this  world,  who  would  make  jests 
pass  for  proofs,  invectives  for  arguments,  and 
sophistry  for  reason,  he  charges  Titus  to  use,  not 
merely  sound  speech,  hut  as  the  original  also 
means,  sound  reason,  that  he  who  is  of  the  con- 
trary part  may  he  ashamed. 

Let  us,  then,  following  his  advice  and  exam- 
ple, pay  a  due  regard  both  to  reason  and  revela- 
tion ;  so  shall  we,  according  to  his  candid 
direction,  break  the  shackles  of  prejudice,  prove 
all  things,  and,  by  Divine  grace,  hold  fast  that 
which  is  good. 


AN  APPEAL  TO  MATTER  OF  FACJT. 


FIRST  PART. 

In  every  teiigion  there  is  a  principal  truth 
or  error,  which,  like  the  first  liuk  of  a  chain, 
necessarily  draws  after  it  all  the  parts  with 
which  it  is  essentially  connected.  This 
leading  principle,  in  Christianity,  distin- 
guished li-om  Deism,  is  the  doctrine  of  our 
corrupt  and  lost  estate ;  lor  if  man  is  not  at 
variance  with  his  Creator,  what  need  of  a 
Mediator  between  God  and  him  ?  If  he  is 
not  a  depraved,  undone  creature,  what  ne- 
cessity of  so  wonderful  a  Restorer  and  Sa- 
vior as  the  Son  of  God?  If  he  is  not  en- 
slaved to  sin,  why  is  he  redeemed  by  Jesus 
Christ  ?  If  he  is  not  polluted,  why  must  he 
be  washed  in  the  blood  of  that  immaculate 
Lamb?  If  his  soul  is  not  disordered,  what 
occasion  is  there  for  such  a  divine  Physi- 
cian ?  K  he  is  not  helpless  and  miserable, 
why  is  he  perpetually  invited  to  secure  the 
assistance  and  consolations  of  the  Holy  Spi- 
rit 1  And,  in  a  word,  if  he  is  not  born  in 
sin,  why  is  a  new  birth  so  absolutely  neces- 
sary, that  Christ  declares,  with  the  most 
2  17 


18  AN    APrEAL   TO  [lARf  1 

solemn  asseverations,  without  it  no  man 
can  see  the  kingdom  of  God  ? 

This  doctrine  then  being  of  such  impor- 
tance, that  genuine  Christianity  stands  or 
falls  with  it,  it  may  be  propei  to  state  it  at 
large;  and  as  this  can  not  be  done  in 
stronger  and  plainer  words  than  those  of 
the  sacred  writers,  1  beg  leave  to  collect 
them  and  present  the  reader  with  a  picture 
of  our  natural  estate,  drawn  at  full  length 
by  those  ancient  and  masterly  hands. 

I.  Moses,  who  informs  us  that  God  crea- 
ted man  in  his  own  image,  and  after  his 
likeness,  soon  casts  a  shade  upon  his  origi- 
nal dignity,  by  giving  us  a  sad  account  of 
his  fall.  He  represents  him  after  his  diso- 
bedience as  a  criminal  under  sentence  of 
death;  a  wretch  filled  with  guilt,  shame, 
dread,  and  horror ;  and  a  vagabond,  turned 
out  of  a  lost  paradise  into  a  cursed  wilder- 
ness, where  all  bears  the  stamp  of  desola- 
tion for  his  sake.  Gen.  iii.  17.  In  conse- 
quence of  this  apostasy  he  died,  and  all  die 
in  him ;  for  by  one  man  sin  entered  into  th-e 
world,  and  death  by  sin ;  and  so  death  pass- 
ed upon  all  men,  for  that  all  have  sinned  in 
him,  who  was  all  mankind  seminally  and 
federally  collected  in  one  individual.  1  Cor. 
XV,  22;  Kom.  v.  12. 

The  sacred  historian,  having  informed  us 
how  the  first  man  was  corrupted,  observes 
that  he  begat  a  son  in  his  own  image,  sin- 


PAKT  I.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  19 

fill  and  mortal  like  himself;  that  his  first- 
born was  a  mm-clerer;  that  Abel  himself  of- 
fered sacrilices  to  avert  Divine  wi'ath,  and 
that  the  violent  temper  of  Cain  soon  broke 
out  in  all  the  human  species.  The  earth, 
says  he,  was  filled  with  violence,  all  flesh 
had  corrupted  its  way — and  God  saw  that 
the  wickedness  of  man  was  great  in  the 
earth,  so  great,  that  every  imagination  of 
the  thoughts  of  his  heart  was  only  evil, 
continually.  Only  evil,  without  any  mix- 
ture of  good ;  and  continiially^  without  any 
intermission  of  the  evil.     Gen.  vi.  5. 

When  the  Deluge  was  over,  the  Lord 
himself  gave  the  same  account  of  his  obsti- 
nately rebellious  creature.  The  imagina- 
tion of  man's  heart,  said  he  to  Noah,  is  evil 
from  his  youth.  Genesis  viii.  21.  Job's 
friends  paint  us  with  the  same  coloi's ;  one 
of  them  observes,  that  man  is  born  like  the 
wild  ass's  colt,  and  another,  that  he  is 
abominable  and  filthy,  and  drinks  iniquity 
Hke  water.     Job  xi.  12,  and  xv.  16. 

David  doth  not  alter  the  hideous  portrait ; 
the  Lord,  says  he,  looked  down  from  heaven 
upon  the  children  of  men ;  to  see  if  there 
were  any  that  did  understand  and  seek  God. 
And  the  result  of  the  Divine  inspection  is, 
they  are  all  gone  aside,  they  are  altogether 
become  filthy;  there  is  none  that  doeth  good, 
no  not  one.  Psalm  xiv.  2.  Solomon  gives 
a  finishing  stroke  to  his  father's  draught,  by 


20  Aif    APPEAL   to  [pARf  t 

informing  us,  that  foolishness  is  bound  in 
the  heart  of  a  child ;  and  not  of  a  child 
only,  for  he  adds.  The  heart  of  the  sons  of 
men  is  full  of  eril,  and  while  they  live, 
madness  is  in  theu*  heart,  Prov.  xxii.  15; 
Eccl.  ix.  3. 

Isaiah  corroborates  tlie  assertions  of  the 
royal  prophets,  in  the  following  mournM 
confession:  All  we,  like  sheep,  have  gone 
astray — we  are  all  as  an  unclean  thing,  and 
all  our  righteousu'^sses  are  as  filthy  rags* 
Isa.  liii.  6,  and  Ixiv.  6. 

Jeremiah  confirms  the  deplorable  truth, 
where  he  says  :  The  sin  of  Judah  is  written 
with  a  p^n  of  iron,  and  with  the  point  of  a 
diamond ;  it  is  graven  upon  the  tables  of 
their  hearts  •  O  Jerusalem,  wash  thy  heart 
from  wickedness,  that  thou  mayest  be  sav- 
ed ;  for  the  heart  is  deceitful  above  all 
things,  and  desperately  wicked:  who  can 
know  it?  Jer.  iv,  14,  and  xvii.  1,  9. 

Thus  the  prophets  delineate  mankind  in 
a  natm*al,  impenitent  state.  And  do  the 
apostles  dip  their  pencil  in  brighter  colors? 
Let  them  speak  for  themselves.  The  chief 
of  them  informs  us,  that  the  natural,  unre^ 
newed  man  receives  not  the  things  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  and  that  they  are  foolishness 
to  him.  1  Cor.  ii.  14.  And  he  lays  it  down 
as  matter  of  fact,  that  the  carnal  mind,  the 
taste  and  disposition  of  every  um'egenerate 
person,  is  not  only  averse  to  goodness,  but 


PART  I.J  MATTER    OF    FACT.  21 

enmity  itself  against  God,  the  adorable 
fountain  of  all  excellence.  A  blacker  line 
can  hardly  be  drawn  to  describe  a  fallen, 
diabolical  natm-e.     Eom.  viii,  7. 

Yarious  are  the  names  which  the  apostle 
of  the  Gentiles  gives  to  our  original  corrup- 
tion ;  and  they  are  all  expressive  of  its  per- 
nicious nature  and  dreadful  effects.  He 
calls  it  emphatically  sin,  a  sin  so  full  of  ac- 
tivity and  energy,  that  it  is  the  life  and 
spring \)f  all  others;  indwelling  sin,  a  sin 
which  is  not  like  the  leaves  and  fruit  of  a 
bad  tree,  tliat  appear  for  a  time,  and  then 
drop  ofi*,  but  like  the  sap  that  dwells  and 
works  within,  always  ready  to  break  out  at 
every  bud ;  the  body  of  sin,  because  it  is  an 
assemblage  of  all  possible  sins  in  embryo, 
as  our  body  is  an  assemblage  of  all  the 
members  which  constitute  the  human  frame; 
the  law  of  sin,  and  the  law  in  our  membei-s, 
because  it  hath  a  constraining  force,  and 
rules  in  our  mortal  bodies,  as  a  mighty  ty- 
rant in  the  kingdom  which  he  liath  usurp- 
ed; the  old  man,  because  we  have  it  from 
the  first  man  Adam,  and  because  it  is  as 
old  as  the  first  stamina  of  our  frame,  with 
wliich  it  is- most  closely  interwoven;  the 
flesh,  as  being  propagated  by  carnal  gener- 
ation, and  always  opposing  the  Spirit,  the 
gracious  principle,  which  we  have  from 
Adam  the  second ;  and  concupiscence,  the 
mystic  Jezebel,  who  brings  forth  the  infi- 


22  AN    APPKAL    TO  [part  I. 

nite  variety  of  fleshly,  worldly ^  and  mental 
lusts,  which  war  against  the  soul. 

J^or  are  St.  James  and  St.  John  less  se- 
vere than  St.  Paul  upon  the  unconverted 
man.  The  one  observes,  that  his  wisdom, 
the  best  property  naturally  belonging  tc 
him,  descendeth  not  from  above,  but  is 
earthly,  sensual,  and  devilish ;  and  the  other 
positively  declares,  that  the  whole  world 
lieth  in  wickedness.  James  iii.  15 ;  1  John 
V.  19. 

Our  Lord,  whose  Spirit  inspired  the  pro- 
phets and  apostles,  confirms  their  lamenta- 
ble testimony.  To  make  us  seriously  con- 
sider sin,  our  mortal  disease,  he  reminds  us 
that  the  whole  have  have  no  need  of  a  phy- 
sician, but  they  that  are  sick.  Luke  v.  31. 
He  declares,  that  men  love  darkness  rather 
than  light.  That  the  world  hates  him  ;  and 
that  its  works  are  evil.  John  iii.  19,  xv.  18, 
vii.  7.  He  directs  all  to  pray  for  the  par- 
don of  sin,  as  being  evil,  and  owing  ten 
thousand  talents  to  their  heavenly  Creditor. 
Matt.  vi.  12,  viii.  11,  xviii.  24.  And  he 
assures  us,  that  the  things  which  defile  the 
man  come  from  within  ;  and  that  out  of  the 
heart  proceed  evil  thoughts,  adulteries,  for- 
nications, murders,  thefts,  covetousness, 
wickedness,  deceit,  lasciviousness,  an  evil 
eye,  blasphemy,  pride,  foolishness,  and,  in 
a  word,  all  moral  evil.  Mark  vii.  21 ;  Matt. 
XV.  19. 


TAKT  I.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  23 

Some  indeed  confine  what  the  Seri'ptures 
/saj  of  the  depnivitj  of  the  human  heart,  to 
the  abandoned  heathens  and  persecuting 
Jews ;  ^s  if  the  professors  of  morality  and 
Christ  anity  were  not  concerned  in  the 
dreadful  charge.  But  if  the  apostolic  wri- 
tings affirm  that  Christ  came  not  to  call  the 
righteous,  but  shiners^  that  he  died  for  the 
ungodly,  and  that  he  sufferedj  the  just  for 
the  unjust,  it  is  plain  that,  unless  he  did 
not  suifer  and  die  for  moral  men  and 
Clii'istians,  they  are  by  nature  sinners,  un- 
godly, and  unjust  as  the  rest  of  mankind. 
Eom.v.  6;  1  Pet  iii.  18. 

If  this  assertion  seems  sevei'e,  let  some  of 
the  best  men  that  ever  lived  decide  the 
point,  not  by  the  experience  of  immoral  per- 
sons, but  by  theii*  own.  I  abhor  myself, 
says  Job,  and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes.  Job 
xlii.  6.  Behold,  I  was  shapen  in  iniquity, 
says  David,  and  in  sin  did  my  mother  con- 
ceive me.  Psalm  li.  5.  Woe  is  me,  for  I 
am  undone,  says  Isaiah,  because  I  am  a 
man  of  unclean  lips.  Isa.  vi.  5.  I  know, 
says  St.  Paul,  that  in  me,  that  is,  in  my 
flesh,  dwelleth  no  good  thing.  Eom.  vii.  18. 
We  ourselves,  says  he  to  Titus,  were  some- 
times foolish,  disobedient,  deceived,  serving 
divers  lusts  and  pleasures,  living  in  malice 
and  envy,  hateful  and  hating  one  another. 
Tit.  iii.  3.  And  speaking  of  himself  and 
the  Christians   at  Ephesus,  he  leaves  upon 


24:  AN    APPEAL    TC)  [PART  S- 

record  this  memorable  sentence.  We  were 
hy  nature  the  children  of  wrath,  even  as 
others.  Eph.  ii.  3.  Such  humbling  thoughts- 
have  the  best  of  men  entertained,  both  of 
their  natm-al  estate  and  themselves.    . 

But  as  no  one  is  a  more  proper  person  to 
appeal  to,  in  this  matter,  than  this  learned 
apostle,  who,  by  continually  conversing  with 
Jews,  heathens,  and  Christians^  in  his  trav- 
els, had  such  an  opportunity  of  knowing 
mankind ;  let  us  hear  him  snm  up  the  suf- 
frages of  his  inspired  brethren.  What^ 
then,  says  he,  are  we  better  than  they  ?  Bet- 
ter than  the  immoral  Pagans  and  hypocrit- 
ical Jews,  described  in  the  two  preceding 
chapters  ?  IS  o,  in  nowise.  And  lie  proves 
it  by  observing:  1.  The  universaUty  of  hu- 
man corruption ;  all  are  under  sin,  as  it  is 
written,  there  is  none  righteous,  no,  not  one, 
2.  The  extent  of  it  in  individuals,  as  it  af- 
fects the  whole  man,  especially  his  mind; 
there  is  none  that  understandeth  tlie  things 
of  God.  His  afiections,  there  is  none  that 
seeketh  after  God.  And  his  actions,  they 
are  all  gone  out  of  the  way  of  duty.  There 
is  none  that  doeth  good,  no,  not  one.  For 
all  have  their  conversation  in  the  lusts  of 
the  flesh  and  of  the  mind.  3.  The  out- 
hreakings  of  this  corruption  through  all  the 
parts  of  the  body.  Their  throat,  their  lips, 
their  mouth,  their  feet,  their  eyes,  and  all 
their  members,  are  together  become   un- 


PAjicT  l.J  MATTEK    OF    KAOi.  25 

profitable,  and  iiistrumeuts  of  UDrighteous- 
ness.     As  for  their  tongue,  says  St.  James, 
it  is  a  world   of  iniquity,  it  defileth   the 
whole  body,  and  sets  on  fire  the  course  of 
nature,  and  is  set  on  fire  of  hell.     And  last-   \ 
ly,  its  malignity  and  viTulence :  it  is  loath-    ) 
some  as  an  open  sepulcher,  terrible  as  one,^^ 
who  runs  to  shed  blood,  and  mortal  as  the 
poison  of  asps. 

From  the  whole,  speaking  of  all  mankind, 
in  their  unregenerate  state,  he  justly  infers 
that  destruction  and  misery  are  in  their 
ways.  And,  lest  the  self-righteous  should 
flatter  themselves,  that  this  alarming  decla- 
ration doth  not  regard  them,  he  adds,  that 
the  Scriptures  conclude  all  under  sin ;  that 
there  is  no  diiference,  for  all  have  sinned 
and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God ;  and 
that  the  moral  law  denounces  a  general 
curse  against  its  violators,  that  every  mouth 
may  be  stopped,  and  all  the  world  may  be-  . 
come  guilty  before  God.  Kom.  iii.  9-23, 
vi.  19;  Eph.  ii.  2. 

If  man  is   thus   corrupt  and   guilty,  he\ 
must  be    liable  to    condign    punishment.  \ 
Therefore,   as   the    prophets    and   apostles  ) 
agree  with  our  Lord  in  their  dismal  des- 
criptions of  his  depravity,  so  they  harmo- 
nize with  him  in  their  alarming  accounts 
of  his  danger.    Till  he  flies  to  the  Redeemer 
as  a  condemned  malefactor,  and  secures  an 
interest  in  the  salvation  provided  for  the 


26  AN    APPEAL    TO  l^ART  I. 

lost,  they  represent  him  as  on  the  brink  of 
ruin. 

They  inform  us  that  the  wi-ath  of  God  is 
revealed  from  heaven,  not  only  against  some 
atrocious  crimes,  but  against  all  unrighte- 
ousness of  men.  Rom.  i.  18.  That  every 
transgression  and  disobedience  shall  receive 
a  just  recompense  of  reward.  Heb.  ii.  2. 
That  the  soul  that  sinneth  shall  die,  because 
the  wages  of  sin  is  death.  Ezek.  xviii.  4 ; 
Eomans  vi.  23.  They  declare,  that  they  are 
cursed,  who  do  err  from  God's  command- 
ments ;  that  cursed  is  the  man  whose  heart 
departeth  fi-om  the  Lord ;  tliat  cursed  is  ev- 
ery one  who  continues  not  in  all  things 
which  are  written  in  the  book  of  the  law  to 
do  them ;  that  whosoever  shall  keep  the 
whole  law,  and  yet  offend  in  one  point,  is 
guilty  of  all ;  and  that,  as  many  as  have 
sinned  without  law,  shall  also  perish  with  • 
out  law.  Psalm  cxix.  21 ;  Jer.  xvii,  5  ;  Gal 
iii.  10  ;  James  ii.  10  ;  Rom.  ii.  12. 

They  entreat  us  to  turn,  lest  we  should  be 
fou^^^  with  the  many  in  the  broad  way  to 
dciitrdction,  Ezek.  xviii.  23 ;  Matt.  vii.  13. 
They  affectionately  infoiTQ  us,  that  it  is  a 
fearfiil  thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
living  God ;  that  our  God  is  a  consuming 
fire  to  the  unregenerate ;  that  mdignation 
and  wrath,  tribulation  and  anguish,  hang 
over  every  soul  of  man  who  doeth  evil ;  that 
the  Lord  shall  be  revealed  from  heaven  in 


PAJRT  I.l  MATTER    OF   FACT.  '   27 

flaming  fire,  to  take  vengeance  on  them  who 
know  him  not,  and  obey  not  the  Gospel ; 
that  the  wicked  shall  be  turned  into  hell, 
and  all  the  people  that  forget  God ;  that 
they  shall  be  punished  with  eternal  destruc- 
tion, from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and 
from  the  glory  of  his  power ;  and  that  they 
all  shall  be  damned  who  believe  not  the 
truth,  but  have  pleasure  in  um-ighteousness. 
Heb.  X.  31,  xii.  29  ;  Kom.  ii.  9  ;  Thess.  i. 
8,  ii.  12  ;  Psalm  ix.  17. 

ITor  does  our  Lord,  who  is  both  the  foun- 
tain and  pattern  of  true  charity,  speak  a 
difiernt  language.  He  bids  us  fear  him  who 
is  able  to  destroy  both  soul  and  body  in 
hell.  Luke  xii.  5.  He  solemnly  charges 
us  to  oppose  corrupt  nature  with  the  utmost 
resolution,  lest  we  be  cast  into  hell,  where 
the  worm  dieth  not,  and  the  fire  is  not 
quenched,  Mark  ix.  43.  With  tenderness 
he  informs  us,  that  whosoever  shall  say  to 
his  brother.  Thou  fool !  shall  be  in  danger 
of  hell  fii-e  ;  that  not  only  the  wicked,  but 
the  unprofitable  servant,  shall  be  cast  into 
outer  darkness,  where  will  be  weeping,  wail- 
ing, and  gnashing  of  teeth;  and  that  he 
himself,  far  from  conniving  at  sin,  will  fix 
the  doom  of  all  impenitent  sinners  by  this 
dreadful  sentence :  Depart  from  me,  ye  curs- 
ed, into  everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the 
devil  and  his  angels.  Matt,  v.  22,  xxv. 
30,  41. 


28  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PART  H. 


SECOND  PART. 

As  no  man  is  bound  to  believe  what  is 
contrary  to  common  sense;  if  the  above 
stated  doctrine  appear  irrational,  the  Scrip- 
tures are  quoted  in  vain :  when  men  of 
parts  are  pressed  with  their  authority,  they 
start  from  it  as  an  imposition  on  their  rea- 
son, and  make  as  honorable  a  retreat  as 
they  possibly  can. 

Some,  to  extricate  themselves  at  once, 
set  the  Bible  aside,  as  full  of  incredible  as- 
sertions. Others,  with  more  modesty,  plead 
that  the  Scriptures  have  been  frequently 
misunderstood,  and  are  so  in  the  present 
case.  They  put  grammar,  ciiticism,  and 
common  sense  to  the  rack,  to  show,  that 
when  the  inspired  writers  say-  the  human 
heart  is  desperately  wicked,  they  mean  that 
it  is  extremely  good  ;  or  at  least  like  blank 
paper,  ready  to  receive  either  the  characters 
of  virtue  or  of  vice. 

That  such  objectors  may  subscribe  as  a 
solemn  truth,  what  they  have  hitherto  re- 
jected as  a  dangerous  error,  and  that  hum- 
ble sinners  may  see  the  propriety  of  a  heart- 
felt repentance,  and  the  absolute  need  of  an 
almighty  Kedeemer,  they  are  here  presented 
with  some  proofs  of  our  depravity,  taken 
from  the  astonishing  severity  of  God's  dis- 
pensations toward  mankind. 


JPAKT  II.J  MATTER   OF   FACT. 


AXIOM. 

If  we  consider  the  supremG  Being  as  cre- 
ating a  world  for  the  manifestation  of  his 
glorj,  the  display  of  his  perfections,  and  the 
communication  of  his  happiness  to  an  intel- 
ligent creature,  whom  he  would  attach  to 
himself  bj  the  strongest  ties  of  gratitude  and 
love,  we  at  once  perceive  that  he  never 
could  form  this  earth  and  man  in  their  pres- 
ent disordered,  deplorable  condition.  It  is 
not  so  absurd  to  suppose  the  meridian  sun 
productive  of  darkness,  as  to  imagine  that 
infinite  goodness  ever  produced  any  kind  or 
degree  of  evil. 

Infinite  holiness  and  wisdom  having  as- 
sisted infinite  goodness  to  draw  the  original 
plan  of  the  world,  it  could  not  but  be  en- 
tirely worth}^  of  its  glorious  Author  abso- 
lutely free  from  every  moral  defilement  and 
natural  disorder ;  nor  could  infinite  power 
possibly  be  at  a  loss  to  execute  what  the 
other  divine  attributes  had  contrived.  There- 
fore, unless  we  embrace  the  senseless  opin- 
ion of  the  Materialists,  who  deny  the  being 
of  a  God,  or  admit  the  ridiculous  creed  of 
the  Manichees,  who  adore  two  gods,  the  one 
the  gracious  author  of  all  the  good,  and  the 
other  the  mischievous  principle  of  all  the 
evil  in  the  world,  we  must  conclude  with 
Moses,  that  everything  which  God  made, 


80  AN    APPEAL   TO  [part  il. 

was  at  first  very  good  ;  or,  in  other  words, 
that  order  and  beauty,  harmony  and  happi- 
ness, wore  stamped  upon  eveiy  part  of  the 
creation,  and  especially  on  man,  the  master^ 
piece  of  creating  power,  in  this  sublunary 
world.     On  this  axiom  I  raise  my 

FmST    AKGUMENT. 

Does  not  the  natural  state  of  the  earth  cast 
a  light  upon  the  spiritual  condition  of  its  in* 
habitants?  Amidst  a  thousand  beauties, 
that  indicate  what  it  was  when  God  pro- 
nounced it  very  good,  and,  as  the  original 
also  imports,  extremely  beautiful ;  amidst 
the  elegant  and  grand  ruins,  which  form  the 
variety  of  our  smiling  landscapes  and  ro- 
mantic prospects  ;  can  an  impartial  inquirer 
help  taking  notice  of  a  thousand  striking 
proofs,  that  a  multiplied  curse  rests  upon 
this  globe ;  and  that  man  who  inhabits  it,  is 
now  disgraced  by  the  God  of  nature  and 
providence  ? 

Here,  deceitful  morasses,  or  faithless 
quicksands,  obstruct  our  way :  there,  miry, 
impassable  roads,  or  inhospitable,  sandy 
deserts,  endanger  our  life.  In  one  place 
we  are  stopped  by  stupendous  chains  of 
rocky  niountains,  broken  into  frightful  pre- 
cipices or  hideous  caverns :  and  in  another, 
we  meet  with  ruinous  valleys,  cut  deep  by 
torrents  and  waterfalls,  whose  tremendous 
roar  stuns  the  astonished  traveler.     Many 


PAJRT  n.]  MATTER    OF   FACT.  31 

of  the  hills  are  stony,  rude,  and  waste ;  and 
most  of  tlie  plains  are  covered  over  with 
strata  of  baiTcn  sand,  stifi'  clay,  or  infertile 
gravel. 

Thorns,  thistles,  and  noxious  weeds,* 
gi'ow  spontaneously  everywhere,  and  yield 
a  ti'oublesome,  never-failing  crop  :  while  the 
best  soil,  carefully  plowed  by  the  laborious 
husbandman,  and  sown  with  precious  seed, 
frequently  repays  his  expensive  toil  with 
light  sheaves,  or  a  blasted  harvest. 

Consider  that  immense  part  of  the  globe, 
which  lies  between  the  tropics  ;  it  is  parch- 
ed up  by  tlie  scorching  beams  of  the  verti- 
cal sun :  there,  the  tawny  inhabitants  fan 
themselves  in  vain  :  they  pant,  they  melt, 
they  faint  on  the  sultry  couch  ;  and,  like  the 
birds  of  night,  dare  not  appear  abroad,  till 
evening  shades  temper  tlie  insufferable  blaze 
of  day.  View  the  ti-ozen  countries  around 
the  poles :  in  summer,  the  sun  just  glances 
upon  them  by  his  feeble,  horizontal  rays :  in 
winter  he  totally  deserts  them,  and  they  lie 
bound  with  rigorous  frosts,  and  buried  in 

*  Those  -vrho  oppose  the  doctrine  of  the  fall,  say  that 
*'  weeds  have  their  use."  I  grant  they  are  serviceable  to 
thousands  of  poor  people,  who  earn  their  bread  by  pull- 
ing the  general  nuisance  out  of  our  fields  and  gardens  ; 
but  till  our  objectors  have  proved  that  thistles  are  more 
useful,  and  therefore  grow  more  spontaneously,  and  mul- 
multiply  more  abundantly,  than  corn,  we  shall  discover 
the  badness  of  their  cause  through  the  slightness  of  their 
objectio'". 


82  AN  APPEAL  TO  fpABT  H* 

continual  night.  There,  the  torpid  inhabit- 
ants know  neither  harvest  nor  vintage ;  the 
ocean  seems  a  boundless  plain  of  ic€,  and 
the  continent  immense  hills  of  snow. 

The  temperate  zones  are,  indeed,  blessed 
with  milder  climates  ;  but  even  here,  how 
irregular  are  the  seasons  !  To  go  no  farther 
than  this  favored  island,  what  means  the 
strange  foresight,  by  which  the  ice  of  Janu- 
ary is  laid  in  to  temper  the  ardors  of  July ; 
and  the  burning  mineral  is  stored  in  June, 
to  mitigate  the  frost  in  December?  But, 
notwithstanding  these  precautions,  what 
continual  complaints  are  heard  about  the 
intenseness  of  the  heat,  the  severity  of  the 
cold,  or  the  sudden  pernicious  change  from 
the  one  to  the  other ! 

Let  us  descend  to  particulars.  In  winter, 
how  often  do  drifts  of  snow  bury  the  starved 
sheep,  and  entomb  the  frozen  traveler  I  In 
summer,  how  frequently  do  dreadful  storms 
of  hail  cut  down,  or  incessant  showers  of 
rain  wash  away,  the  fruits  of  the  earth  I 
Perhaps,  to  complete  the  desolation,  water 
pours  down  from  all  the  neighboring  hills  ; 
and  the  swelling  streams,  joining  with  over- 
flowing rivers,  cause  sudden  inundations, 
lay  waste  the  richest  pastures,  and  carry  oflP 
the  swimming  flocks  ;  while  the  frighted  in- 
habitants* of  the  vale  either  retire  to  the  top 

*  This  was  the  case  of  several  families  in  the  author's 
parish,  November,  1770. 


PA^T  II.]  MATIEiR   OF   VA&T.  33 

of  their  deluged  houses,  or  by  timely  assist- 
ance of  boats,  fly  li-om  the  imminent  and  in- 
creasing danger. 

If  heaven  seems  to  dissolve  into  water  in 
one  place,  in  another  it  is  like  brass ;  it 
yields  neither  ti-uitful  rains  nor  cooling 
dews :  the  earth  is  like  ii-on  under  it,  and 
the  perishing  cattle  loll  out  their  parched 
tongues,  where  they  once  drank  the  refresh- 
ing stream.  Suppose  a  few  happy  districts 
escape  these  dreadful  scourges  for  a  number 
of  yeai«,  ai'e  they  not  at  last  visited  with  re- 
doubled severity  ?  And,  while  abused  afflu- 
ence vanishes  as  a  dream  before  the  intoler- 
able dearth,  do  not  a  starving,*  riotous 
populace,  leave  their  wretched  cottages,  to 
plunder  the  houses  of  their  wealthy  neigh 
Jdoi-s,  desperately  venturing  the  gallows  for 
a  morsel  of  bread  ? 

-  When  some,  secure  from  the  attacks  of 
water,  quietly  enjoy  the  comforts  of  plenty,, 
fire  perhaps  surprises  them  in  an  instant: 
they  awake,  involved  in  smoke,  and  sur- 
rounded by  crackling  flames,  through  which 
— if  it  is  not  too  late-  —they  fly  naked  at  the 
hazard  of  their  neck,  and  think  themselves 
happy  if,  while  they  leave  behind  them 
young  children  or  aged  parents,  burning  in 
the  blaze  of  all  their  goods,  they  escape 

*  This  happened  some  years  ago  in  this  neighbor^ 
hood. 

3 


M  'a-^  appeal  to  [pAiiT  tl. 

themselves  with  dislocated  joints  or  broken 
bones.  Their  piercing  shrieks,  and  the  fall 
of  their  house,  seem  to  portend  a  general 
conflagration;  loud  confusion  increases,  dis- 
astrous ruin  spreads;  and  perhaps,  before 
they  can  be  stopped,  a  street,  a  suburb,  a 
whole  city,  is  reduced  to  ashes. 

Turn  your  imagination  from  the  smoking 
ruins,  to  fix  it  upon  the  terrifying  efi*ects  of 
the  air,  agitated  into  roaring  tempests  and 
boisterous  hurricanes;  before  their  impet- 
uous blast  the  masts  of  ships  and  cedars  of 
Lebanon  are  like  broken  reeds ;  men  of  war 
and  solid  buildings  like  the  driven  chaflf. 
Here,  they  strip  the  groaning  forests,  tear 
the  bosom  of  the  earth,  and  obscure  the  sky 
with  clouds  of  whirling  sand:  and  there 
they  plow  up  the  liquid  foaming  plains, 
and,  with  sportive  fuiy,  turn  up  mountains 
for  ridges,  or  cut  valleys  instead  of  furrows. 
As  they  pass  along,  the  confounded  ele- 
ments dreadfully  roar  under  the  mighty 
scourge,  the  rolling  sea  tosses  herself  up  to 
heaven,  and  the  solid  land  is  swept  with 
the  besom  of  destruction. 

To  heighten  the  horror  of  the  scene,  thun- 
der, the  majestic  voice  of  an  angry  God, 
and  the  awful  artillery  of  heaven,  bursts 
into  loud  claps  from  the  lowering  sky.  Dis- 
tant hills  reverberate  and  increase  the 
alarming  sound,  and,  with  rocking  edifices, 
declare  to  man  that  vengeance  belongeth  to 


f AL-  17,]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  36 

God.  And,  to  enforce  the  solemn  warning, 
repeated  flashes  of  lightning,  with  horrible 
glare,  dazzle  his  eyes,  and  with  forked  fires 
strike  consternation  into  his  breast,  if  they 
do  not  actually  strike  him  dead  in  the  midst 
of  his  shattered  habitation. 

Nor  doth  heaven  alone  dart  destructive 
fires  ;  earth — our  mother  earth — as  if  it 
were  not  enough  frequently  to  corrupt  the 
atmosphere  by  pestilential  vapors,  borrows 
the  assistance  of  the  devouring  elements,  to 
terrify  and  scourge  her  guilty  children.  By 
sudden  frightful  chasms,  and  the  mouth  of 
her  burning  mountains,  she  vomits  clouds 
of  smoke,  sulphureous  flames,  and  calcined 
rocks ;  she  emits  streams  of  melted  miner- 
als, covers  the  adjacent  plains  with  boiling 
fiery  lavas ;  and,  as  if  she  wanted  to  ease 
herself  of  the  burden  of  her  inhabitants,  sud- 
denly rises  against  them,  and  in  battles  of 
shaking,  at  once  crushes,  destroys,  and  bur- 
ies them  in  heaps  of  ruins. 

These  astonishing  scenes,  like  a  bloody 
battle  that  is  seen  at  a  distance,  may  indeed 
entertain  us.  They  may  amuse  our  imagi- 
nation, when  in  a  peaceful  apartment  we 
behold  them  beautifully  represented  by  the 
pen  of  a  Yirgil,  or  the  pencil  of  a  Eaphael. 
But  to  be  in  the  midst  of  them,  as  thousands 
are,  sooner  or  later,  is  inexpressibly  dread- 
ful. It  is  actually  to  see  the  forerunner  of 
Divine  vengeance,  and  hear  the  shaking  of 


%  '  AN    APPEAL   TO  [part  11. 

God's  destructive  rod.  It  is  to  behold  at 
once  a  lively  emblem  and  an  awM  pledge 
of  that  fire  and  brimstone,  storm  and  tem- 
pest, which  the  righteous  Governor  of  the 
world  will  rain  upon  the  ungodly;  when 
the  heavens  shall  pass  away  with  a  great 
noise,  the  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent 
heat,  and  the  earth  with  the  works  that  are 
therein,  shall  be  burned  up. 

Now,. as  reason  loudly  declares  .that  the 
God  of  order,  justice  and  goodness  could 
never  establish  and  continue  this  fearful 
course  of  things,  but  to  punish  the  disorders 
of  the  moral  world  by  those  of  the  natural, 
we  must  conclude  that  man  is  guilty,  from 
the  alarming  tokens  of  Divine  displeasure, 
which  sooner  or  later  are  so  conspicuous  in 
every  part  of  the  habitable  globe. 

SECOND    ARGUMENT. 

We  have  taken  a  view  of  the  residence 
of  mankind :  let  us  now  behold  them  enter* 
ing  upon  the  disordered  scene.  And  here 
reason  informs' us,  that  some  mystery  of  in* 
iquity  lies  hid  under  the  loathsome,  painful, 
and  frequently  mortal  circumstances  which 
accompany  their  birth.  For  it  can  never  be 
imagined,  that  a  righteous  and  good  God 
would  suffer  innocent  and  pure  creatures  to 
come  into  the  world  skilled  in  no  language 
but  that  of  misery,  venting  itself  in  bitter 
cries  of  doleful  accents. 


PART  II.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  '  37 

It  is  a  matter  of  fact,  that  infants  gener- 
ally return  their  first  breath  with  a  groan, 
and  salute  the  light  with  the  voice  of  sor- 
row: generally,  1  say,  for  sometimes  they 
are  born  half  dead,  and  can  not,  without 
the  utmost  difficulty,  be  brought  to  breathe 
and  groan.  But  all  are  born  at  the  hazard 
of  their  lives ;  for  while  some  can  not  press 
into  the  land  of  the  living,  without  being 
dangerously  bruised,  others  have  their  ten- 
der bones  dislocated.  Some*  are  almost 
strangled;  and  it  is  the  horrible  fate  of 
others,  to  be  forced  into  the  world  by  instru- 
ments of  torture ;  having  their  skull  bored 
through  or  broken  to  pieces ;  or  their  quiv- 
ering limbs  cut  or  torn  oft'  from  the  unlbr- 
tunate  trunk.     Again : 

While  some  appear  on  the  stage  of  life 
embarrassed  with  superfluous  parts,  others, 
unaccountably  mutilated,  want  those  which 
are  necessary.  An.l  what  is  more  terrible 
still,  a  few,  whose  hideous,  misshapen  bo- 
dies seem  calculated  to  represent  the  de- 
foimity  of  a  fallen  soul,  rank  among  fright- 
ful monsters;  and  to  terminate  the  horror 
of  the  parents,  are  actually  smothered  and 
destroyed. 

The  spectators,  it  is  true,  concerned  for 
the  honor  of  mankind,  frequently  draw  a 
vail  over  these  shocking  and  bloody  scenes ; 
but  a  philosopher  will  find  them  out,  and 
will  rationally  infer  that  the  deplorable  and 


38  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PART  n 

dangerous  manner  in  which  mankind  art 
born,  proves  them  to  be  degenerate  fallei 
creatures.* 

THIRD    ARGUMENT. 

If  we  let  our  thoughts  ascend  from  the 
little  sufferers,  to  the  mothers  that  bear 
them,  we  shall  find  another  dreadful  proof 
of  the  Divine  displeasure,  and  of  our  natu 
ral  depravity.  Does  not  a  good  master, 
much  more  a  gracious  God,  delight  in  the 
prosperity  and  happiness  of  his  faithful  ser- 
vants? If  mankind  were  naturally  in  their  . 
Creator's  favor,  would  he  not  order  the  fruit 
of  the  womb  to  drop  from  it  without  any 
more  inconveniency  than  ripe  vegetables 
fall  from  the  opening  husk,  or  full-grown 
fruit  from  the  disburdened  tree?  But  how 
widely  different  is  the  case ! 

Fix  your  attention  on  pregnant  mothers : 

*  Logicians  will  excuse  the  author,  if  he  prefers  the 
common,  unaffected  manner  of  proposing  his  arguments, 
to  the  formal  method  of  the  schools.  But  they  may 
easily  try  his  enthymeraes  by  giving  them  the  form  of 
syllogisms,  thus : 

I.  Argument.  If  the  rod  of  God  is  fearfully  shaken 
over  this  globe,  the  disordered  habitation  of  mankind, 
it  is  a  sign  they  are  under  his  displeasure. 

But  God's  rod  is  fearfully  shaken  over  this  globe,  etc 
Therefore,  mankind  are  under  his  displeasure. 

II.  Argument.  A  pure  and  innocent  creature  can  not 
be  born  under  such  and  such  deplorable  circumstances. 

But  man  is  born  under  such  and  such  deplorable  cir. 
cumstances.  Therefore  man  is  not  a  pure  and  innocent 
creature. 


FART  II.]  MATTEK    OF    FA<;T.  39 

Bee  their  disquietude  and  fears.  Some  go 
Deforehand  through  an  imaginary  travail, 
almost  as  painfiilto  the  mind  as  the  real 
labor  is  to  the  body.  The  dreaded  hour 
corces  at  last.  Good  God!  What  linger- 
ing, what  tearing  pains:  what  redoubled 
throes,  what  killing  agOBies  attend  it!  See 
the  tim'se — or  rather  see  it  not.  Let  the 
daughter  of  her  who  tasted  the  forbidden 
fi-uit  without  the  man,  drink  that  bitter  cup 
withotit  him.  Fly  from  the  mournful  scene, 
fly  to  tUstant  apartments ;  but  in  vain,  the 
din  of  6on'ow  pursuess  and  overtakes  you 
there. 

A  child  of  man  is  at  the  point  of  being 
born;  his  tortured  mother  proclaims  the 
news  in  the  bitterest  accents.  They  in- 
crease with  her  increasing  agony.  Sympa- 
thize and  pray  while  she  suflers  and  groans, 
— perhaps  while  she  suffers  and  dies — for 
it  is  possibly  her  dying  groan  that  reaches 
your  ear.  Perhaps  nature  is  spent  in  the 
hard  travail;  her  son  is  born,  and,  with  Ja- 
cob's wife,  she  closes  her  languid  eyes  and 
expires.  Perhaps  the  instruments  of  death 
are  upon  her ;  the  keen  steel  mangles  her 
delicate  frame;  as  Caesar's  mother,  she  gen- 
erously suffers  her  body  to  be  opened,  that 
her  unborn  child  may  not  be  torn  from  her 
in  pieces ;  and  the  fertile  tree  is  unnaturally 
cut  down,  that  its  fruit  may  be  safely  gath- 
ered. 


40  AN    APPEAI.   TO  [part  II. 

Perhaps  neither  mother  nor  child  can  be 
saved,  and  one  grave  is  going  to  deprive  a 
distracted  mortal  of  a  beloved  Rachel,  and 
a  long-expected  Benjamin.  K  this  is  the 
case,  O  earth,  earth,  earth,  conceal  these 
slain,  cover  their  blood,  and  detain  in  thy 
dark  bosom  the  fearful  cm*se  that  brought 
them  there.  Yain  wish !  Too  active  to  be 
confined  in  thy  deepest  vaults,  it  ranges 
through  the  world ;  with  unrelenting  fierce- 
ness it  pursues  trembling  mothers  and  forces 
them  to  lift  up  their  voice  for  &peedy  relief^ 
though  varied  according  to  the  accents  of  a 
hundred  languages,  it  is  the  same  voice — 
that  of  the  bitterest  anguish ;  and  while  it  is 
reverberated  from  hamlet  to  hamlet,  from 
city  to  city,  it  strikes  the  unprejudiced  in- 
quirer, and  makes  him  confess,  that  these 
clouds  of  unbribed  witnesses,  by  their  loud, 
consentaneous  evidence,  impeach  Sln^  the 
tormentor  of  the  woman  and  murderer  oi 
her  offspring. 

But  suppose  the  case  is  not  so  fatal,  and 
she  is  at  last  delivered ;  her  labor  may  be 
over,  yet  not  her  pain  and  danger;  a  linger- 
ing weakness  may  carry  her  slowly  to  her 
grave.  If  she  recovers,  she  may  be  a  moth- 
er, and  yet  unable  to  act  a  mother's  part. 
Her  pining  child  sucks  her  disordered  breast 
in  vain ;  either  the  springs  of  his  balmy  food 
are  dried  up  or  they  overflow  with  a  putrid^ 
loathsome    fluid,   and   excniciatinsr    ulcera 


PART  II.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  41 

cause  the  soft  lips  of  the  infant  to  appear 
terrible  as  the  edge  of  the  sword. 

If  she  happily  escapes  this  common  kind 
of  distress,  yet  she  may  date  the  beginning 
of  some  chronical  disease  from  her  danger- 
ous lying-in;  and  in  consequence  of  her 
hard  wrestling  for  the  blessing  of  a  child, 
may,  with  the  patriarch,  go  halting  all  her 
days.  How  sensible  are  the  marks  of  Di- 
vine indignation  in  all  these  scenes  of  sor- 
row! and  consequently,  how  visible  our 
sinfulness  and  guilt ! 

Nor  can  the  justness  of  the  inference  be 
denied,  under  pretense  that  the  females  of 
other  animals,  which  neither  do  nor  can  sin, 
bring  forth  their  young  with  pain,  as  well 
as  women.  For,  if  we  take  a  view  of  the 
whole  earth,  we  shall  not  see  any  females, 
except  the  daughters  of  Eve,  who  groan  un- 
der a  periodical  disorder  that  entails  lan- 
guor and  pain,  weakness  and  mortal  dis- 
eases, on  their  most  blooming  days.  Nor 
do  we  in  general  find  any  that  are  delivered 
of  their  offspring  with  half  the  sorrow  and 
danger  of  women.  These  two  remarkable 
circumstances  loudly  call  upon  us  to  look 
for  the  cause  of  the  sorrow  which  attends  the 
delivery  of  female  animals,  where  that  sor- 
row is  most  sensibly  felt ;  and  to  admire  the 
perfect  agreement  that  subsists  between  the 
observations  of  natural  philosophers,  and 
the  assertion  of  the  most  ancient  historian. 
Gen.  iii.  16. 


42  AN    APPEAL    TO  [PAET  H. 


FOURTH    ARGUMENT. 

K  we  advert  to  mankind,  even  before  they 
burst  the  womb  of  their  tortm-ed  mothers, 
they  afibrd  us  a  new  proof  of  their  total  de- 
generacy. For  reason  dictates,  that  if  they 
were  not  conceived  in  sin,  the  Father  of 
mercies  could  not,  consistently  with  his 
goodness  and  justice,  command  the  cold 
hand  of  death  to  nip  them  in  the  unopened 
or  just  opened  bud.  This,  nevertheless,  hap- 
p  :'cs  every  iiour.  Who  can  number  the  ear- 
ly miscarriages  of  the  womb  ?  How  many 
millions  of  miserable  embryos  feel  the  pangs 
of  death  before  those  of  birth,  and  prepos- 
terously turn  the  fruitful  womb  into  a  living 
grave  ?  And  how  many  millions  more  of 
wretched  infants  escape  the  dangers  of  their 
birth-day,  and  salute  the  troublesome  light, 
only  to  take  their  untimely  leave  of  it,  after 
languishing  a  few  days  on  the  rack  of  a  con- 
vulsive or  torturing  disorder  ?  I  ask  again, 
would  a  good  and  righteous  God  seal  the 
death-warrant  of  such  multitudes  of  his  un- 
born or  newly-born  creatures,  if  their  natu- 
ral depravity  did  not  render  them  proper 
subjects  of  dissolution  ? 

It  is  true,  the  young  beasts  suffer  and  die, 
as  well  as  infants ;  but  it  is  only  because 
they  are  involved  in  our  misery.  They  par- 
take of  it  as  the  attendants  of  a  noble  trai- 


PART  II.]  MATTER    OF   FACT.  43 

tor  share  in  his  deserved  ruin.  Sin,  that 
inconceivably  virulent  and  powerful  evil, 
drew  down  God's  righteous  curse  upon  all 
that  was  created  for  man's  use,  as  well  as 
upon  man  himself.  Hence  only  springs  the 
degeneracy  and  death  that  turn  beasts  to 
one  promiscuous  dust  with  mankind.  Com- 
pare Gen.  iii.  17;  Rom.  v.  12,  viii.  22. 
We  may  then  justly  infer  from  the  sufferings 
and  death  of  still-born  or  new-bom  children, 
that  man  is  totally  degenerate,  and  liable  to 
destruction  even  from  his  mother's  womb. 

FIFTH    ARGUMENT. 

But  take  your  leave  of  the  infant  corpse, 
already  buried  in  the  womb,  or  deposited  in 
a  coffin  of  a  span  long ;  fix  your  attention 
on  the  healthy,  sucking  child.  See  him 
stupidly  staring  in  his  nurse's  lap,  or  awk- 
wardly passing  through  childhood  to  man- 
hood. How  visible  is  his  degeneracy  in 
every  stage ! 

Fart  of  the  Divine  image,  in  which  he 
was  made  in  Adam,  consisted  in  purity, 
power,  and  knowledge  ;  but  now,  he  is  nat- 
urally the  least  cleanly,  as  well  as  the  most 
helpless  and  ignorant  of  all  animals.  Yes, 
if  the  reader  could  forgive  the  indelicacy  of 
the  assertion,  for  the  sake  of  its  truth,  I 
would  ventm*e  to  show,  that  there  is  no  com- 
parison between  the  cleanliness  of  the  little 
active  animals  which  suck  the  filthy  swine, 


44  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PART  H. 

and  of  helpless  infants,  who  suck  the  purer 
breasts  of  their  tender  mothers.  But,  cast- 
ing a  vail  over  the  dribbling  loathsome  little 
creatures,  without  fear  of  being  contradict- 
ed, I  aver  that  the  young  of  those  brutes, 
which  are  stupid  to  a  proverb,  know  their 
dams,  and  follow  them  as  soon  as  they  are 
dropped  ;  while  infants  are  months  without 
taking  any  particular  notice  of  their  parents, 
and  without  being  able,  I  shall  not  say  to 
follow  them,  but  even  to  bear  the  weight  of 
their  swaddled  body,  or  stand  upon  their 
tottering  legs. 

With  reference  to  the  knowledge  necessa- 
ry for  the  support  of  animal  life,  it  is  unde- 
niable that  brutes  have  greatly  the  advant- 
age of  mankind.  Fowls  and  fishes,  imme- 
diately, and  with  amazing  sagacity,  single 
out  their  proper  nourishment,  among  a  thou- 
sand useless  and  noxious  things  ;  but  infants 
put  indifferently  to  their  mouths  all  that 
comes  to  their  hand,  whether  it  be  food  or 
poison,  a  coral  or  a  knife ;  and  wliat  is  more 
astonishing  still,  grown-up  persons  scarce 
ever  attain  to  the  knowledge  of  the  quantity 
or  quality  of  the  meat  and  drink  which  are 
most  suitable  to  their  constitutions. 

All  disordered  dogs  fix  at  once  upon  the 
salutary  vegetable  that  can — 'in  some  cases 
— relieve  their  distress ;  but  many  physi- 
cians, even  after  several  years'  study  and 
practice,  hurt,  and  sometimes  kill  their  pa- 


t'AUT  11.]  MATTEU    OF   FACT.  45 

tients,  by  improper  medicines.  Birds  of 
passage,  by  mere  instinct,  lind  the  north 
and  south  more  readily  than  mariners  by 
the  compass.  Untaught  spiders  weave  their 
webs,  and  uninstructed  bees  make  their 
combs  to  the  greatest  perfection ;  but  fallen 
man  must  serve  a  tedious  apprenticeship  to 
learn  his  own  business ;  and  with  all  the 
help  of  masters,  tools,  and  patterns,  seldom 
proves  an  ingenious  artist. 

Again :  other  animals  are  provided  with 
a  natm-al  covering,  that  answers  the  double 
end  of  usefulness  and  ornament ;  but  indi- 
gent man  is  obliged  to  borrow  from  plants, 
beasts,  and  v/orms,  the  materials  with  which 
he  hides  his  nakedness,  or  defends  his  fee* 
bleness ;  and  a  great  part  of  his  short  life  is 
spent  in  providing,  or  putting  on  and  off 
garments,  the  gaudy  tokens  of  his  shame,  or 
ragged  badges  of  his  fall. 

Are  not  tliese  plain  proofs  that  man,  who, 
according  to  his  superior  rank  and  primitive 
excellency,  should  in  all  things  have  the 
pre-eminence,  is  now  a  degi-aded  being,  curs* 
ed  for  his  apostasy  with  native  uncleanli- 
ness,  helplessness,  ignorance,  and  naked- 
ness, above  all  other  animals  ? 

SIXTH   ARGUMElSTT. 

Man's  natural  ignorance,  great  as  it  is, 
might,  nevertheless,  be  overlooked,  if  he  had 
but  the  right  knowedge  of  his  Creator.     But 


46  AN    APPEAL   TO  [pAKt  II. 

alas  !  the  holy  and  righteous  God  judicious- 
Ij  withdraws  himself  from  his  unholy,  apos- 
tate creature.  Man  is  not  properly  acquaint- 
ed with  him  in  whom  he  lives,  and  moves, 
and  hath  his  being.  This  humbling  truth 
may  be  demonstrated  by  the  following  ob- 
servations : 

God  is  infinitely  perfect ;  all  the  perfec- 
tion which  is  found  in  the  most  exalted  crea- 
tures, is  but  the  reflection  of  the  transcend- 
ent effulgence  belonging  to  that  glorious  Sun 
of  spiritual  beauty  ;  it  is  but  the  surface  of 
the  unfathomable  depths  of  goodness  and 
loveliness,  which  regenerate  souls  discover 
in  that  boundless  ocean  of  all  excellence. 
If,  therefore,  men  saw  God,  they  could  far 
less  help  being  struck  with  holy  awe,  over- 
whelmed with  pleasing  wonder,  and  ravisli- 
ed  with  delightful  admiration,  than  a  man 
born  blind,  and  restored  to  sight  in  the  blaze 
of  a  summer^B  day,  could  help  being  trans- 
ported at  the  glory  of  the  new  and  unex- 
pected scene.  Could  we  but  see  virtue  in 
all  her  beauty,  said  a  heathen,  she  would 
ravish  our  hearts.*  How  much  greater 
would  our  ravi«hments  be,  if  we  were  in- 
dulged with  a  clear,  immediate  discoveiy 
of  the  divine  beauty — the  eternal  origin  of 
all  virtue — the  exulvrant  fountain  of  all  per- 
fection and  delight^     But,  alas  !    how  few 

*  Si  virtus  conppiceretu''  oculis,  mirabiles  amores  ex- 
citare,  sui. — Cic. 


PAliT  n.J  MATTER    OF   FACT.  47 

tlius  behold,  know,  and  admire  God,  may 
easily  be  seen  by  the  impious  or  vain  con- 
duct of  mankind. 

K  a  multitude  of  men  ingeniously  confess 
they  know  not  the  king;  if  they  take  his 
statue  or  one  of  his  attendatits  for  him;  or 
if  they  doubt  whether  there  be  a  king,  or 
sport  with  his  name  and  laws  in  his  pres- 
ence, we  reasonably  conclude  that  they  nei^ 
ther  see  nor  know  the  royal  person.  And 
is  not  this  the  case  of  the  superstitious,  who, 
like  the  Athenians,  worship  an  unknown 
God?  Of  idolaters,  who  bow  to  favorite 
mortals,  or  lifeless  images,  as  to  the  true 
God  ?  Of  infidels,  who  doubt  the  very  be- 
ing'of  a  God?  And  of  open  sinners,  the 
bulk  of  mankind,  who  live  every-where  as 
if  there  Was  none? 

Our  natural  ignorance  of  God  manifests 
itself  still  more  evidently  by  the  confessions 
both  of  real  and  nominal  Christians.  The 
former,  before  they  knew  God,  and  were 
admitted  to  behold  his  glory  shining  in  the 
face  of  Jesus  Chrjst,  bitterly  complained  as 
Isaiah,  Yerily  thou  art  a  God  that  hidest 
thyself;  or  mournfully  asked  with  David, 
How  long  wilt  thou  hide  thy  face  li'om  me? 
It  is  plain,  then,  that  by  nature  they  were 
as  others,  without  God  (practical  Atheists) 
in  the  world,  and  have  as  much  reason  as 
St.  Paul  to  declare  that  the  world  by  wis- 
dom knew  not  God. 


48  AN   APPEAL   TO  [pART  11. 

As  for  nominal  Christians,  though  they 
daily  pray  that  the  fellowship  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  may  be  with  us  all,  it  is  evident  they 
are  utter  strangers  to  communion  with  God 
Dy  his  Holy  Spirit.  For  if  we  affirm  that 
he  blesses  his  children  with  a  spiritual  dis- 
covery of  his  presence,  and  manifests  him^ 
self  to  them  as  he  doth  not  to  the  world, 
they  say  we  are  mad,  or  call  us  enthusiasts. 
This  behavior  shows,  beyond  all  confessions, 
that  they  are  totally  unacquainted  with  the 
light  of  God's  countenance ;  for  what  greater 
proof  can  a  blind  mau  give,  that  he  has  no 
knowledge  of  the  sun,  than  to  suspect  his 
neighbor  of  lunacy  for  affirming  that  sun- 
shine is  a  delightful  reality  ? 

From  this  moral  demonstration  of  our 
natural  ignorance  of  God,  I  draw  the  fol* 
lowing  conclusion:  If  the  Lord,  who  is  a 
mild  and  condescending  King  to  all  his 
loyal  subjects,  a  Father  full  of  endearing 
and  tender  love  to  all  his  dutiful  children 
hides  his  face  from  mankind  in  a  natural 
state,  and  if  what  little  they  know  of  him  is 
only  by  conjecture,  hearsay,  or  inference,* 
it  is  a  proof  that  they  are  under  his  dis- 
pleasm-e;  and,  consequently,  that  they  are 
rebellious,  fallen  creatures. 

*  This  is  the  knowledge  of  God  mentioned  Rom.  i, 
21.  It  is  sufficient  to  leave  without  excuse  those  who 
do  not  improve  it,  till  they  attain  to  the  saving  kno-vr* 
ledge  mentioned  John  xvii,  3;  1  John  v,  20. 


PAET  11.]  MATTER    OF   FACT.  49 

For,  what  Imt  rebellion  could  thus  sepa- 
rate between  beings  so  nearly  related  as  an 
infinitely  gracious  Creator  and  favorite  crea- 
tures, wliose  soul  is,  according  to  a  heathen, 
divinm  jpartiGula  cuutcb^  and,  according  to 
Moses,  the  very  breath  of  God?  We  may 
then  rationally  conclude  with  the  evangeli- 
cal prophet,  that  our  iniquities  have  separa- 
ted between  us  and  our  God,  and  that  our 
sins  have  hid  his  face  from  us,  eclipsed  the 
Sun  of  righteousness,  and  brought  such 
darkness  on  our  souls,  that  by  nature  we 
know  neither  what  we  are,  nor  what  we 
should  be:  neither  whence  we  come,  nor 
whither  we  are  going:  neither  the  grand 
business  we  have  to  do,  nor  the  danger  that 
attends  our  leaving  it  undone. 

SEVENTH     ARGUMENT. 

If  by  nature  mankind  know  not  the  Lord 
to  be  their  God,  is  it  surprising  that  beasts 
should  not  know  mankind  to  be  their  lords  ? 
Nevertheless,  reason  agrees  with  Scripture 
in  maintaining  that  man,  by  far  the  noblest 
work  of  God  here  below,  should,  according 
to  the  reason  and  fitness  of  things,  bear  rule 
over  all  the  sublunary  creation.  But,  alas ! 
even  in  this  repect,  how  is  the  crown  fallen 
from  his  head!  Inferior  animals  have  as 
little  regard  for  him  as  he  has  for  his  God. 

Notwithstanding  his  artful  contrivances, 
greedy  birds  and  mischievous  beasts  eat  up, 
4 


50  Ai-f  api'->':al  to  [paj^t  n. 

trample  down,  or  destroy  part  of  the  fmit 
of  his  rural  labor.  In  warmer  climes, 
armies  of  locusts,  liiore  terrible  than  hosts 
of  men,  frequently  darken  the  air,  or  covei 
the  ground,  and  equally  mock  at  human 
power  and  craft.  Wherever  they  light,  ail 
verdure  disappears,  and  the  summer's  fruit- 
fulness  is  turned  into  wintry  desolation. 

If  locusts  do  not  reach  this  happy  island, 
caterpillars,  and  a  variety  of  other  seem- 
ingly insignificant,  but  really  formidable 
insects,  make  a  more  constant,  though  less 
general,  attack  upon  our  trees  and  gardens. 
In  vain  are  they  destroyed  by  millions  — 
they  can  not  be  fully  conquered ;  and  the 
yearly  returning  plague  forces  the  consid- 
erate spectator  to  acknowledge  the  finger  of 
a  sin-avenging  Providence. 

Happy  would  it  be  for  man  if  rebellious 
animals  were  satisfied  with  the  produce  of 
his  fields  and  orchards ;  but,  alas !  they 
thirst  after  his  blood,  and  attack  his  person. 
Lions,  tigers,  rattlesnakes,  crocodiles,  and 
sharks,  whenever  they  have  an  opportunity, 
impetuously  attack,  furiously  tear,  and 
greedily  devour  him.  And  what  is  more 
astonishing,  the  basest  reptiles  are  not 
afi'aid  to  breed  in  his  stomach,  to  live  in 
his  very  bowels,  and  to  consume  his  inward 
pans ,  while  swarms  of  fiying,  leaping,  or 
creeping  insects,  too  vile  to  be  named — but 
not  to  humble  a  proud  apostate — have  tha 


PAKT  II.J  MA-rrKR    OF    FACT.  5l 

insolence  to  lix  upon  bis  skin,  and,  by 
piercing  or  furrowjng  his  tlesli,  suck  bis 
blood,  and  feast  upon  him  from  bis  cradle 
to  his  grave. 

Domestic  animals,  it  is  true,  do  man  ex^ 
Cellent  service;  but  is  it  not  because  he 
either  forces  or  bribes  them  to  it,  by  con- 
tinual labor  and  expense,  with  which  he 
breaks  and  maintains  them  ?  What  busi- 
ness liave  multitudes  of  men,  but  to  serve 
the  drudges  of  mankind  ?  What  are  smiths, 
farriers,  farmers,  servants,  grooms,  hostlers, 
etc.,  but  tlie  slaves  of  brutes  — washing, 
currying,  shoeing,  feeding,  and  waiting  up- 
on them  botti  by  day  and  by  night? 

And  yet,  notwithstanding  the  prerogative 
granted  to  Noalrs  piety.  Gen.  ix,  2,  and  the 
care  taken  of  domestic  animals,  do  they  not 
rebel  as  often  as  they  dare?  Here  sheep, 
deemed  the  quietest  of  all,  run  astray,  or 
break  into  the  fields  of  a  litigious  neighbor: 
there,  the  furious  bull  pursues  and  gores,  or 
the  raging  dog  sets  upon  the  inoffensive 
traveler.  To-day  you  read  that  an  impetu- 
ous, foaming  steed,  hath  humed  away, 
thrown  off,  and  dragged  along  his  unfortu^ 
nate  master,  whose  blood,  sprinkling  the 
dust,  and  brains  dashed  upon  the  stones, 
direct  the  search  of  liis  disconsolate  friend : 
and  to-morrow,  you  may  hear  that  a  vicious 
hoi-se  has  darted  his  iron-fenced  hoof  into 


52  AN   APPEAL   TO  [pAiiT  IL 

his  altendaDt's  breast  or  forehead,  and  has 
lamed  or  killed  him  on  the  spot. 

And  would  the  wise  Governor  of  the 
•World,  the  kind  protector  of  his  obedient 
creatures,  permit  this  rebellion,  even  of  the 
tamest  animals  and  basest  vermin,  against 
man,  if  man  himself  was  not  a  daring  rebel 
against  him  ? 

EIGHTH    AKGUMENT. 

That  a  contemptible  insect  should  dare  to 
set  upon,  and  be  able  to  devour  a  proud 
monarch,  a  Herod  in  the  midst  of  his 
guards,  is  terrible:  but  the  mischief  stops 
not  here.  Numerous  tribes  of  other  base 
animals  are  armed  with  poisonous  tongues 
or  stings,  and  use  them  against  mankind 
with  peculiar  rage.  To  say  nothing  of  mad 
dogs,  have  not  asps,  vipers,*  tarantulas, 
scorpions,  and  other  venomous  serpents  and 
insects,  the  destructive  skill  of  extracting 
the  quintessence  of  the  curse  which  sin,  our 
moral  poison,  hath  brought  upon  the  earth? 
When  we  come  within  their  reach,  do  they 
not  bite  or  sting  us  with  the  utmost  fury  ? 
and,  by  infusing  their  subtile  venom  in  our 
blood,  spread  they  not  anguish  and  destruc- 
tion through    our    agonizing   frame?     Au- 

*  Some  will  say  that  viper's  flesh  is  useful  in  physic. 
I  grant  it,  but  is  the  poison  of  that  creature  useful  ? 
I'his  must  be  proved  before  the  argument  can  be  inval- 
idated. 


PABT  II.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  53 

swer,  ye  thousands  who  died  in  the  wilder- 
ness of  the  bite  of  fiery  serpents ;  and  ye 
multitudes,  who,  in  almost  all  countries, 
have  shared  their  deplorable  fate. 

Let  us  descend  to  the  vegetable  world. 
How  many  deceitful  roots,  plants,  and 
fruits,  deposit  their  pernicious  juices  in  the 
stomach  of  those  who  unwarily  feed  upon 
them?  Did  not  Elisha  and  the  sons  of  the 
prophets  narrowly  escape  being  poisoned 
altogether,  by  one  of  them  fatally  mistaking 
a  pot-herb  ?  And  do  not  many  go  quickly 
or  slowly  to  their  grave  by  such  melancholy 
accidents  ? 

Minerals  and  metals  are  not  the  last  to 
enter  into  the  general  conspiracy  against 
mankind.  Under  inoffensive  appearances, 
do  they  not  contain  wiiat  is  destructive  to 
the  animal  Irame^  And  have  not  many 
fallen  a  sacrifice  to  their  ignorance  of  the 
mischief  lurking  in  arsenic,  and  other  min- 
eral productions^*  ^N'or  are  metallic  efiiu- 
via  less  hurtful  to  hundreds ;  and  the  health 
of  mankind  is,  perhaps,  more  injured  by 
copper  alone,  tiian  it  is  preserved  by  all  the 
mineral  waters  in  the  world.  It  is  acknow- 
ledged that  numbers  are  poisoned  by  food 

*  It  is  objected  that  excellent  remedies  are  prepared 
with  antimony  and  mercury.  But  it  is  well  known 
that  the  persons  who  use  them  only  expel  one  poison 
with  another ;  as  the  decayed  constitutions  of  those 
who  have  frequent  recourse  to  such  violent  medicines 
abundantly  prove. 


54  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PAKT  II. 

prepared  in  utensils  made  of  that  dangerous 
metal ;  and  how  many  are  insensibly  Inirt 
by  the  same  means,  is  only  known  to  a  wise 
and  righteous  Providence. 

Thus,  God  leaves  us  in  the  world,  where 
mischief  lurks  under  a  variety  of  things  ap- 
parently useful  without  giving  us  the  least 
intimation  of  destruction  near.  To  say  that 
infinite  goodness  can  deal  thus  with  inno- 
cent creatures,  is  offering  violence  to  our 
reason,  and  an  afiront  to  Divine  justice. 
Conclude,  then,  with  me,  reader,  that  we 
have  lost  our  original  innocence,  and  for- 
feited our  Creator's  favor. 

NINTH   ABGUMENT. 

But  if  the  generality  of  mankind  escape 
all  the  various  sorts  of  poison,  do  they  es- 
cape the  curse  of  toil  and  sweat  ?  And  is 
not  a  great  majority  of  them  reduced  to 
such  sordid  want,  and  pressing  necessity, 
as  to  be  obliged  to  do  the  greatest  drudgery 
for  a  wretched  maintenance? 

When  God  made  them  to  have  dominion 
over  the  works  of  his  hands — when  he  put 
all  things  in  subjection  under  their  feet, 
and  crowned  them  with  glory  and  honor, 
they  filled  up  each  happy  hour  in  eviden- 
cing their  love  to  him  and  to  each  other; 
they  spent  their  golden  moments  in  admi- 
ring the  variety  and  beauty  of  his  works, 
finding  out  the  divine  signature  impressed 


PABT  II. J  MATTER    OF    FACT.  65 

upon  them,  swaying  their  mild  scepter  over 
the  obedient  creation,  and  enjoying  the  rich, 
incorruptible  fruits,  which  the  earth  spon- 
taneously produced  in  the  greatest  perfec- 
tion and  abundance.  Thus  their  pleasure 
was  without  idleness  or  pain,  and  their  em- 
ployment without  toil  or  weariness. 

But  no  sooner  did  disobedience  open  the 
floodgates  of  natural  evil,  than  arduous  la- 
bor came  in  full  tide  upon  mankind ;  and  a 
thousand  painful  arts  were  invented  to  mit- 
igate the  manifold  curses  which  sin  had 
brougiit  upon  them. 

Since  the  fall,  our  bodies  have  become 
vulnerable  and  shameiully  naked:  and  it  is 
the  business  of  thousands  to  make,  or  sell, 
all  sorts  of  garments  for  our  defense  and  or- 
nament, the  earth  has  lost  her  original 
fertility ;  and  thousands  more  with  iron  in- 
stiTiments  open  her  bosom  to  force  her  to 
yield  us  a  maintenance;  or  with  immense 
labor  secure  her  precarious,  decaying  fruits. 
Immoderate  rains  deprive  her  of  her  solid- 
ity, and  earthquakes  or  deluges  destroy  her 
evenness  ;  numbers,  therefore,  are  painfolly 
employed  in  making  or  mending  roads. — 
Each  country  iiffords  some  only  of  the  ne- 
cessaries or  conveniences  of  life ;  this  obliges 
the  mercantile  inhabitants  to  transport,  with 
immense  trouble  and  danger,  the  produce 
of  one  place  to  supply  the  wants  of  another. 
We  are  exposed  to  a  variety  of  dangers ; 


^  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PART  U, 

our  persons  and  property  mnst  be  secnred 
against  the  inclemency  of  the  weather,  the 
attacks  of  evil  beasts,  and  assaults  of  wick- 
ed men;  hence  the  fatigue  of  millions  of 
workmen  in  wood  and  stone,  metals  and 
minerals ;  and  the  toils  and  hazards  of  mil- 
lions more  who  live  by  making,  wearing,  or 
using  the  various  instruments  of  war  and 
slaughter. 

Disorder  and  injustice  give  rise  to  gov- 
ernmentj  politics,  and  a  labyrinth  of  laws  ^ 
and  those  employ  myriads  of  officers,  law- 
yers,, magistrates,  and  rulers.  We  are  sub- 
ject to  a  thousand  pains  and  maladies ; 
hence  myriads  more  prescribe  and  prepare 
remedies,  or  attend  and  nurse  the  sick.  Our 
universal  ignorance  occasions  the  tedious 
labor  of  giving  and  receiving  instruction  in 
all  the  branches  of  human  and  Divine 
knowledge.  And  to  complete  the  whole, 
the  original  tongue  of  mankind  is  confound- 
ed, and  even  neighboring  nations  are  bar- 
barians to  each  other ;  from  hence  arise  the 
painful  lucubrations  of  critics  and  linguists, 
with  the  infinite  trouble  of  teaching  and 
learning  various  languages. 

The  curse  introduced  by  sin  is  the  occa- 
sion of  all  these  toils.  They  are  soon  men- 
tioned ;  but,  alas !  how  long,  how  grievous 
do  they  appear  to  those  that  feel  their  sever- 
ity? How  many  sighs  have  they  forced 
from  the  breasts,  how  much  sweat  from  the 


PART  II.]  MA'ITEE    OF    FACT.  57 

bodies  of  mankind?  Unite  the  former,  a 
tempest  might  ensue ;  collect  the  latter,  it 
would  swell  into  rivers. 

To  go  no  farther  than  this  populons  par- 
ish, w4th  what  hardships  and  dangers  do 
our  indigent  neighbors  earn  their  bread ! 
See  those  who  ransack  the  bowels  of  the 
earth  to  get  the  black  mineral  we  burn  • 
how  little  is  their  lot  preferable  to  that  of 
the  Spanish  felons  who  work  the  golden 
mines  'i 

They  take  their  leave  of  the  light  of  the 
sun,  and,  suspended  by  a  rope,  are  let  down 
many  fathoms  perpendicularly  toward  the 
center  of  the  globe ;  they  traverse  the  rocks 
through  which  they  have  dug  their  horizon- 
tal ways  ;  the  murderer's  cell  is  a  palace  in 
comparison  of  the  black  spot  to  which  they 
repair ;  the  vagrant's  posture  in  the  stocks 
is  preferable  to  that  in  which  they  labor. 

Form,  if  you  can,  an  idea  of  the  misery 
of  men  kneeling,  stooping,  or  lying  on  one 
side,  to  toil  all  day  in  a  confined  place, 
where  a  child  could  hardly  stand ;  while  a 
younger  company,  with  their  hands  and  feet 
on  the  black,  dusty  ground,  and  a  chain 
about  their  body,  creep  and  drag  along,  like 
four-footed  beasts,  heavy  loads  of  the  dirty 
mineral,  through  ways  almost  impassable  to 
the  cm-ious  observer. 

In  these  low  and  dreaiy  vaults  all  the 
elements   seem  combined   against  them. — 


58  AN    APPEAL    TO  |  PAKT  II. 

Destructive  clamps,  and  clouds  of  noxious 
dust  infect  the  air  they  breathe.  Sometimes 
water  incessantly  distills  on  their  naked 
bodies ;  or  bursting  upon  them  in  streams, 
drowns  them  and  deluges  their  work.  At 
other  times,  pieces  of  detached  rocks  crush 
them  to  death,  or  the  earth,  breaking  in  up- 
on them,  buries  them  alive.  And  fre- 
quently sulphureous  vapors,  kindled  in  an 
instant  by  the  light  of  their  candles,  form 
subterraneous  thunder  and  lightning.  What 
a  dreadful  phenomenon  !  how  impetuous  is 
the  blast !  how  tierce  the  rolling  flames ! 
how  intolerable  the  noisome  smell !  how 
dreadful  the  continued  roar!  how  violent 
and  fatal  the  explosion  ! 

Wonderful  Providence !  some  of  the  un- 
happy men  have  time  to  prostrate  them- 
selves— the  fiery  scourge  gi-azes  their  backs, 
the  ground  shields  their  breasts ;  they  es- 
cape.  See  them  wound  up  out  of  the  bla- 
ding dungeon,  and  say  if  these  are  not 
brands  plucked  out  of  the  fire.  A  pestifer- 
ous steam,  and  clouds  of  suflbcating  smoke 
pursue  them.  Half  dead  themselves,  they 
hold  their  dead  or  dying  companions  in 
their  trembling  arms.  Merciful  God  of 
Shadrach !  Kind  Protector  of  Meshech !  — 
Mighty  Deliverer  of  Abednego !  Patient 
Preserver  of  rebellious  Jonah !  Will  not 
these  utter  a  song — a  song  of  praise  to 
thee — praise,  ardent  as  the  flames  they  es- 


PAET  II.]  MATTER    OF   FACT.  59 

cape — lasting  as  the  life  thou  prolongest ! — 
alas !  they  refuse !  and  some — O,  tell  it  not 
among  the  heathens,  lest  they  forever  abhor 
the  name  of  Christian — ^some  return  to  the 
very  pits,  where  they  have  been  branded 
with  sulphureous  fire  by  the  warning  hand 
of  Providence ;  and  there,  sporting  them- 
selves again  with  the  most  infernal  wishes, 
call  aloud  for  a  fii-e  that  can  not  be  quench- 
ed, and  challenge  the  Almighty  to  cast 
them  into  hell,  that  bottomless  pit  whence 
there  is  no  retm-n. 

Leave  these  black  men  at  their  perilous 
work,  and  see  yonder  bargemen  hauling 
that  loaded  vessel  against  wind  and  stream. 
Since  the  dawn  of  the  day,  they  have 
wrestled  with  the  impetuous  current ;  and 
now  that  it  almost  overpowers  them,  how 
do  they  exert  all  their  remaining  strength, 
and  strain  then-  eveiy  nerve  !  how  are  they 
bathed  in  sweat  and  rain!  Fastened  to 
theii-  lines  as  horses  to  their  traces,  wherein 
do  they  difier  from  the  laborious  brutes  ? — 
Not  in  an  erect  posture  of  body,  for  in  the 
intenseness  of  their  toil  they  bend  forward, 
their  head  is  foremost,  and  their  hands  upon 
the  ground.  If  there  is  any  difference,  it 
consists  in  this :  horses  are  indulged  with  a 
collar  to  save  their  breasts  ;  and  these,  as  if 
theirs  were  not  worth  saving,  draw  without 
one;  the  beasts  tug  in  patience,  silence, 
and  mutual  harmony;   but  the  men  with 


60  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PART  H. 

loud  contention  and  horrible  imprecations. 
O,  sin,  what  hast  thou  done!  is  it  not 
enough  that  these  drudges  should  toil  like 
brutes ;  must  thej  also  curse  one  another 
like  devils  ^ 

.  If  you  have  gone  beyond  the  hearing  of 
their  impious  oaths,  stop  to  consider  the 
sons  of  Yulcan  confined  to  these  forges  and 
furnaces.  Is  their  lot  much  preferable?  a 
sultry  air,  and  clouds  of  smoke  and  dust, 
are  the  element  in  which  they  labor.  The 
confused  noise  of  water  falling,  steam  hiss- 
ing, fire-engines  working,  wheels  turning, 
fires  creaking,  hammers  beating,  ore  bm'st- 
ing,  and  bellows  roaring,  form  the  dismal 
concert  that  strikes  the  ears,  while  a  con- 
tinual eruption  of  flames,  ascending  fi'om 
the  mouth  of  their  artificial  volcanoes,  daz- 
zle their  eyes  with  a  horrible  glare.  Massy 
bars  of  hot  iron  are  the  heavy  tools  they 
handle,  cylinders  of  the  first  magnitude  the 
enormous  weights  they  heave,  vessels  full 
of  melted  metal  the  dangerous  loads  they 
carry;  streams  of  the  same  burning  fluid 
the  fiery  rivers  which  they  conduct  into  the 
deep  cavities  of  their  subterraneous  molds  ; 
and  millions  of  flying  sparks,  with  a  thou- 
sand drops  of  liquid  hissing  iron,  the  hor- 
rible showers  to  which  they  are  exposed. — 
See  them  cast ;  you  would  think  them  in  a 
bath,  and  not  in  a  furnace ;  they  bedew  the 
burning  sand  with  their  streaming  sweat; 


t»AtiT  II.]  MATTER   OF   FACT.  61 

nor  are  their  wet  garments  dried  up,  either 
by  the  fierce  fires  that  they  attend,  or  the 
fiery  streams  which  they  manage.  Cer- 
tainly, of  all  men,  these  have  reason  to  re- 
member the  just  sentence  of  an  ofiended 
God :  In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat 
thy  bread  all  the  days  of  thy  life. 

All,  indeed,  do  not  go  through  the  same 
toil ;  but  all  have  their  share  of  it,  either  in 
body  or  in  mind.  Behold  the  studious  son 
of  learning;  his  intense  application  hath 
wasted  his  fiesh,  exhausted  his  spirits,  and 
almost  dried  up  his  radical  moisture.  Con- 
sider the  man  of  fortune ;  can  his  thousands 
a  year  exempt  him  from  the  cm-se  of  Adam? 
No:  he  toils  perhaps  harder  in  his  sports 
and  debaucheries,  than  the  poor  plowman 
that  woTks  his  estate. 

Yiew  that  corpulent  epicure,  who  idles 
away  the  whole  day  between  the  festal 
board  and  the  dozing  couch.  You  may 
think  that  he,  at  least,  is  free  from  the  curse 
which  I  describe :  but  you  are  mistaken ; 
while  he  is  living,  as  he  thinks,  a  life  of 
luxurious  ease  and  gentle  inactivity,  he  fills 
himself  with  crude  humors,  and  makes  way 
for  the  gnawing  gout  and  racking  gravel. 
See  even  now,  how  strongly  he  perspires, 
and  with  what  uneasiness  he  draws  his 
short  breath,  and  wipes  his  dewy,  shining 
face !  Surely  he  toils  under  the  load  of  an 
indigested  meal.     A  porter  carries  a  bur- 


62  '  AN  Appeal  to  [part  ii. 

den  upon  his  brawny  shoulders,  but  this 
wretch  has  conveyed  one  into  his  sick  stom- 
ach. He  will  not  work ;  let  him  alone ; 
and  ere  long  acute  pains  will  bathe  him  in 
as  profuse  a  sweat  as  that  of  the  liirnace 
man;  and  strono^  medicines  will  exercise 
him  to  such  a  degree,  that  he  will  envy 
even  the  collier's  lot. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  mankind  afe 
imder  a  curse  of  toil  and  sweat,  according 
to  the  Divine  sentence  recorded  by  Moses  ;* 
and  that  they  are  frequently  condemned  by 
Providence  to  as-  hard  labor  for  life,  as 
wretched  felons  rowing  in  the  galleys,  or 
digging  in  the  mines. t  But,  as  it  is  abso- 
lutely incredible,  that  a  good  God,  who  by 
a  word  can  supply  the  wants  of  all  his  crea- 
tures, should  have  sentenced  innocent  man- 
kind to  these  inconceivable  hardships,  to 
procure  or  enjoy  the  necessaries  of  life,  it  is 
evident  they  are  guilty,  miserable  offenders. 

*  It  has  been  asserted  that  the  short  pleasure  of  eat- 
ing and  drinking  makes  amends  for  the  severest  toil. 
The  best  way  to  bring  such  idle,  sensual  objectors  to 
reason,  would  be  to  make  them  earn  eveiy  meal  by  two 
or  three  hours'  threshing.     Besides,  what  great  pleasure 
can  those  have  in  eating,  who  actually  starve,  or  just 
stay  gnawing  hunger  by  food  coarser  than  that  which 
their  rich  neighbors  give  to  their  dogs  ? 
f  God's  image  disinherited  of  day. 
Here  plunged  in  mines  foi'gets  a  sun  was  made. 
There,  beings  deathless  as  their  haughty  lord. 
Are  hammer'd  to  the  galling  oar  for  life. 
And  plow  the  winter's  wave,  and  reap  despair. 

YOUNO. 


PART  II.]  MATTER   OF   FACT.  ^3 


TENTH     ARGUMENT. 

Hard  Jabor  and  sweat  make  up  but  one 
of  the  innumerable  calamities  incident  to 
the  wretched  inhabitants  of  this  world. — ^ 
Turn  your  eyes  which  way  you  please,  and 
jou  will  see  some  flying  irom,  others  groan- 
ing under,  the  rod  of  God ;  and  tlie  greatest 
number  busily  making  a  scourge  for  the 
backs  of  their  fellow-creatures,  or  their  own. 

To  pass  over  the  misery  of  the  brute  crea- 
tion; to  say  nothing  of  the  subtlety  and 
rapaciousness  with  which — after  the  exam- 
ple of  men  * — they  long  wait  for,  and  prey 
upon  one  another ;  to  cast  a  vail  over  the 
agonies  of  millions,  that  are  daily  stabbed^ 
strangled,  shot,  and  even  flayed,  boiled,  or 
swallowed  up  alive,  for  the  support  of  man's 
life,  or  the  indulgence  of  his  luxury;  and 
not  to  mention  again  the  almost  uninter- 
rupted cries  of  feeble  infancy ;  only  take  no* 
tice  of  the  tedious  confinement  of  childhood, 
the  blasted  schemes  of  youth,  the  anxious 
cares  of  riper  years,  and  the  deep  groans  of 
wrinkled,  decrepit,  tottering  old  age.     Fix 


Eager  ambition's  fiery  chase  I  see  ; 
I  see  the  circling  hunt  of  noisy  men. 
Burst  law's  inclosure,  leap  the  bounds  of  right. 
Pursuing  and  pursued,  each  other's  prey  ; 
As  wolves,  for  rapine  ;  as  the  fox,  for  wiles  ; 
Till  Death,  that  mighty  hunter,  earths  them  all. 

Young. 


64:  AN   APPEAL   TO  fpART  H* 

your  attention  upon  family  trials;  here  a 
prodigal  father  ruins  his  children,  or  undu- 
tiful  children  break  the  hearts  of  their  fond 
parents ;  there  an  unkind  husband  imbitters 
the  life  of  his  wife,  or  an  imprudent  wife 
stains  the  honor  of  her  husband ;  a  servant 
disobeys,  a  relation  misbehaves,  a  son  lies 
ill,  a  tenant  breaks,  a  neighbor  provokes,  a 
rival  supplants,  a  friend  betrays,  or  an  enemy 
triumphs  ;  peace  seldom  continues  one  day* 

Listen  to  the  sighs  of  the  afflicted,  the 
moans  of  the  disconsolate,  the  complaints 
of  the  oppressed,  and  shrieks  of  the  tor-' 
tured ;  consider  the  deformity  of  the  faces 
of  some,  and  distortion  or  mutilation  of  the 
limbs  of  others;  to  awaken  your  compas- 
sion,* here  a  beggar  holds  out  the  stump  oi 
a  tliigh  or  an  arm ;  there  a  ragged  ^Tetch 
hops  after  you,  upon  one  leg  and  two 
crutches;  and  a  little  farther  you  meet 
with  a  poor  creature,  using  his  hands  in- 
stead of  feet,  and  dragging  through  the 
mire  the  cumbrous  weight  of  a  body  with- 
out lower  parts. 

Imagine,  if  possible,  the  hardships  of 
those  who  are  destitute  of  one  uf  their 
senses ;  here,  the  blind  is  guided  by  a  dog, 
or   gropes  his  w^ay  in   the   blaze  of  noon; 

*  Some  for  hard  masters  broken  under  arms, 
In  battle  lopp'd  away,  with  half  their  limbs. 
Beg  bitter  bread  through  realms  their  valor  saved. 

Young. 


FAKT  II.  ]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  65 

there,  the  deaf  lies  on  the  brink  of  danger, 
inattentive  to  the  loudest  calls;  here,  sits 
the  dumb,  sentenced  to  eternal  silence; 
there,  dribbles  the  idiot,  doomed  to  perpet- 
ual childhood ;  and  yonder,  the  paralytic 
shakes  without  intermission,  or  lies  sense- 
less, the  frightful  image  of  a  lifeless  corpse. 
Leaving  these  wretched  creatures,  con- 
sider the  tears  of  the  disappointed — the  sor- 
rows of  the  captive — the  anxieties  of  the  ac- 
cused— the  fears  of  the  guilty,  and  teiTOrs 
of  the  condemned.  Take  a  turn  through 
jails,  inquisitions,  houses  of  correction,  and 
places  ot  execution.  Proceed  to  the  mourn- 
ful rooms  of  the  languishing,  and  w^earisome 
beds  of  the  sick;  and  let  not  the  fear  of  hu- 
man woe,  in  some  of  its  most  deplorable 
appearances,  prevent  you  from  visiting  hos- 
pitals, i»nfirmaries,  and  bedlams: 

A  place 
Before  your  eyes  appears,  sad,  noisome,  dark, 
A  lazar-liouse  it  seems,  wherein  are  laid 
Numbers  of  all  diseased  :  all  maladies 
Of  ghastly  spasm,  or  racking  torture,  qualms 
-Of  heart-sick  agony,  all  fev'rous  kinds. 
Convulsions,  epilepsies,  fierce  catarrhs. 
Intestine  stone,  and  ulcer,  colic-pangs, 
Demoniac  frenzy,  moping  melancholy, 
And  moon-struek  madness,  pining  atrophy,  ^ 

Marasmus  and  wide-wasting  pestilence. 
Dropsies,  and  asthmas,  and  joint-racking  rheums 
Dire  is  the  tossing  !     Deep  the  groans !     Despair 
Attends  the  sick,  busiest  from  €ouch  to  couch ; 
And  over  them,  triumphant  Death  his  dai't 
Shakes ;  but  delays  to  strike,  though  oft  invoked 
With  vows,  as  their  chief  good  and  final  hope. 

MlLT02f. 


ia6  AN  APPEAL  TO       [PAKT  IIv 

To  close  the  horrible  prospect,  view  the 
ruins  of  cities  and  kingdoms — the  calami- 
ties of  wrecks  and  sieges — the  horrors  of 
sea-fights  and  fields  of  battle,  with  all  the 
crimes,  devastation,  and  cruelties,  that  ac- 
company revenge,  contention,  and  war,  and 
you  will  be  obliged  to  conclude,  with  Job^ 
that  corrupt  man  is  born  to  trouble,  as  the 
sparks  fly  upward;  with  David,  that  the 
earth  is  full  of  darkness  and  cruel  habita- 
tions; and  with  every  impartial  inq^uirer, 
that  OUT  depravity  and  God's  justice  concur 
to  make  this  world  a  vale  of  tears,  as  well 
as  a  field  of  toil  and  sweat ;  a  vast  prison 
for  rebels  already  "  tied  witli  the  chains  of 
their  sins,"  a  boundless  scaiibld  for  their 
execution,  a  golgotha,  an  aceldama,  an  im- 
mense field  of  torture  and  blood. 

Some  will  probably  say,  "  This  picture  of 
the  world  is  drawn  with  black  lines,  but  a 
kinder  Providence  blends  light  and  shade 
together,  and  tempers  our  calamities  with 
numberless  blessings."  I  answer — it  can 
not  be  too  thankfully  acknowledged,  that 
while  patience  suspends  the  stroke  of  jus- 
tice, God,  for  Christ's  sake,  restores  us  a 
thousand  forfeited  blessings,  that  his  good- 
ness may  lead  us  to  repentance.  But,  alasl 
what  is  the  consequence,  where  Divine 
grace  does  not  prove  victorious  over  corrupt 
•nature  ?  To  all  our  sins,  do  we  not  add  the 
crime  of  either  enjoying  the  fevors  of  Prov- 


FABT  n.]  MATTER   OF   FACT.  67 

idence  with  the  greatest  ingratitude,  or  of 
abusing  them  with  the  most  provoking  in- 
solence ? 

Our  actions  are  far  more  expressive  of 
our  real  sentiments  than  our  words.  Why 
this  variety  of  exquisite  food  ?  says  the  vo- 
luptuary whose  life  loudly  speaks  what  his 
lips  dare  not  utter.  Why  this  abundance 
of  delicious  wines,  but  to  tempt  my  un- 
bridled appetite,  and  please  my  luxurious 
palate?  Would  God  have  given  softness  to 
silks,  brightness  to  colors,  and  luster  to 
diamonds?  says  the  self-applauding  smile 
of  a  foolish  virgin  who  worships  herself  in 
a  glass ;  would  he  have  commanded  the 
white  of  the  lily  thus  to  meet  the  blush  of 
the  rose,  and  highten  so  elegant  a  propor- 
tion of  features,  if  he  had  not  designed  t^t 
the  united  powers  of  art,  dress  and  beauty, 
should  make  me  share  his  divine  honors  ? 
Why  are  we  blessed  with  om*  dear  children 
and  amiable  friends,  says  the  ridiculous  be- 
havior of  fond  parents  and  raptm-ed  lovers, 
but  that  we  should  suspend  our  happiness 
on  their  ravishing  smiles,  and  place  them 
as  favorite  idols  in  the  shrine  of  our  hearts  ? 
And  why  has  Heaven  favored  me  both  with 
a  strong  constitution  and  an  affliient  for- 
tune, says  the  rich  slave  of  brutish  lusts, 
but  I  may  drink  deeper  of  earthly  joys  and 
sensual  delights? 

Thus   blessings,  abused  or  unimproved, 


68  AN   APPEAL    TO  [PAKT  H. 

become  curses  in  our  hands.  God's  indul- 
gence encourages  us  to  offend  him  ;  we  have 
the  fatal  skill  of  extracting  poison  from  the 
sweetest  Howers ;  and  madly  turn  the  gifts 
of  Providence  into  weapons  to  attack  our 
Benefactor,  and  destroy  ourselves.  That 
there  are,  then,  such  perverted  gil'ts,  does 
not  prove  that  mankind  are  innocent,  but 
that  God's  patience  endureth  yet  daily,  and 
that  a  Savior  ever  liveth  to  make  interces- 
sion for  us. 

Should  it  be  farther  objected,  that  ''our 
pleasures  counterbalance  calamities,"  I  an- 
swer, the  greatest  part  of  mankind  are  so 
oppressed  with  want  and  cares,  toil  and 
sickness,  that  their  intervals  of  ease  may 
rather  be  termed  ^'an  alleviation  of  misery,'' 
than  an  "enjoyment  of  happiness.''  Our 
pains  are  real  and  lasting — our  joys  imagi- 
nary and  momentary.  Could  we  exercise 
all  our  senses  upon  the  most  pleasing  ob- 
jects, the  toothache  would  render  all  insipid 
and  burdensome ;  a  fit  of  the  gout  alone 
damps  every  worldly  joy,  while  all  earthly 
delights  together  can  not  give  us  ease  under 
it — so  vastly  superior  is  the  bitterness  of 
one  bodily  pain  to  the  sweetness  of  all  the 
pleasures  of  sense ! 

If  objectors  will  urge  that  "  sufferings  are 
needful  for  our  trial,"  I  reply,  they  are  ne- 
cessaiy  for  our  punishment  and  correction, 
but  not  for  our  trial.     A  good  king  can  try 


PAKT  II.J  MATTER    OF    FACT.  61) 

the  loyalty  of  his  subjects  without  putting 
them  to  the  rack.  Let  Nero  and  Bonner 
try  the  innocent  by  all  sorts  of  tortures,  but 
let  not  their  barbarity  be  charged  upon  a 
God  strictly  just  and  infinitely  good. 

However,  ''  calamities  prove  a  blessing  to 
some."  And  so  does  transportation.  But 
who  ever  inferred  from  thence,  that  reform- 
ed felons  were  transported  for  the  trial  of 
their  virtue,  and  not  for  the  punishment  of 
their  crimes?  I  conclude,  therefore,  that 
our  calamities  and  miseries  demonstrate  our 
corruption  as  strongly  as  the  punishment  of 
the  bastinado  and  pillory,  appointed  by  an 
equitable  judge,  prove  the  guilt  of  those  on 
whom  they  are  frequently  and  severely  in- 
flicted. 

ELEVENTH    ARGUMENT. 

Would  to  God  the  multiplied  calamities 
of  life  were  a  sufficient  punishment  for  our 
desperate  wickedness !  But,  alas  !  they  only 
make  way  for  the  pangs  of  death.  Like 
traitors,  or  rather  like  wolves  and  vipers,  to 
which  the  Son  of  God  compares  natural 
men,  we  are  all  devoted  to  destruction. — 
Yes,  as  we  kill  those  mischievous  crea- 
tures, so  God  destroys  the  sinful  sons  of 
men. 

If  the  reader  is  offended,  and  denies  the 
mortifying  assertion,  let  him  visit  with  me 
the  mournful  spot  where  thousands  are-daily 


70  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PAKT  II. 

executed,  and  where  hundreds  make  this 
moment  their  dying  speech.  I  do  not  mean 
what  some  call  "the  bed  of  honor" — a  field 
of  battle — but  a  common  death -bed. 

Observing,  as  we  go  along,  those  black 
trophies  of  the  king  of  terrors,  those  escutch- 
eons, which  preposterous  vanity  tixes  up 
in  honor  of  the  deceased,  when  kind  charity 
should  hang  them  out  as  a  warning  to  the 
living,  let  us  repair  to  those  mournful  apart- 
ments where  weeping  attendants  support 
the  dying,  where  swooning  Iriends  embrace 
the  dead,  or  whence  distracted  relatives 
carry  out  the  pale  remains  of  all  their  joy. 

Guided  by  their  groans  and  funeral  lights, 
let  us  proceed  to  the  dreary  charnel-houses 
and  calvaries,  which  we  decently  call  vaults 
and  church-yards ;  and,  without  stopping  to 
look  at  the  monuments  of  some,  whom  my 
objector  remembers  as  vigorous  as  himself, 
and  of  others,  who  were,  perhaps,  his  part- 
ners in  nightly  revels,  let  us  liasten  to  see 
the  dust  of  his  moldered  ancestors,  and  to 
read  upon  yonder  coffins  the  dear  name  of  a 
parent,  a  child,  perhaps  a  wife,  turned  off 
from  his  bosom  into  the  gulf  of  eternity  ! 

If  this  sight  does  not  convince  him,  I 
shall  open  one  of  the  noisome  repositories, 
and  show  him  the  deep  hollows  of  those 
eyes  that  darted  tender  sensation  into  his 
soul,  and  odious  reptiles  fattened  upon  the 
once  charming,  now  ghastly,  face  he  doated 


PART  II. J  MATTER    OF    FACT.  71 

upon !  But  metliiuks  he  turns  pale  at  the 
very  proposal,  and.,  rather  than  be  confront- 
ed with  such  witnesses,  acknowledges  that 
he  is  condemned  to  die,  w^ith  all  his  dear 
relatives,  and  the  whole  human  race. 

And  is  this  the  case?  Are  we,  then,  un- 
der sentence  of  death  ?  How  awful  is  the 
consideration !  Of  all  the  things  that  na- 
ture dreads,  is  not  death  the  most  terrible? 
And  is  it  not — as  being  the  greatest  of  tem- 
poral evils — appointed  by  liuman  and  di- 
vine laws  lor  the  punishment  of  capital  of- 
fenders, whether  they  are  named  felons  and 
traitors,  or  more  genteelly  called  men  and 
sinners?     Let  matter  of  fact  decide. 

\\  hile  earthly  judges  condemn  murderers 
and  traitors  to  be  hanged  or  beheaded,  does 
not  the  Judge  of  all  sentence  sinful  man- 
kind either  to  pine  away  with  old  age,  or 
be  wasted  with  consumptions,  burned  with 
fevers,  scalded  with  hot  humors,  eaten  up 
with  cancers,  putrefied  by  mortifications, 
suflbcated  by  asthmas,  strangled  by  quin- 
seys,  poisoned  by  the  cup  of  excess,  stabbed 
with  the  knife  of  luxury,  or  racked  to  death 
by  disorders  as  loathsome,  and  accidents  as 
various,  as  their  sins? 

If  you  consider  the  circumstances  of  their 
execution,  where  is  the  material  difi'erence 
between  tJie  malefactor  and  the  sinner  ?  The 
jailer  and  the  turnkey  confine  the  one  to 
his   cell;   the  disorder  and    the  physician 


72  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PARJT  II. 

confine  the  other  to  his  bed.  The  one  lives 
upon  bread  and  water;  the  other  upon 
draughts  and  boluses.  The  one  can  walk 
with  his  fetters ;  the  other,  loaded  with  blis- 
ters, can  scarcely  turn  himself.  The  one 
enjoys  freedom  from  pain,  and  has  the  per- 
fect use  of  his  senses ;  the  other  complains 
he  is  racked  all  over,  and  is  frequently  de- 
lirious. The  executioner  does  his  office 
upon  the  one  in  a  few  minutes ;  but  the 
physician  and  his  medicines  make  the  other 
linger  for  days,  before  he  can  die  out  of  his 
misery.  An  honest  sheriff,  and  constables 
armed  with  staves,  wait  upon  one ;  while  a 
greedy  undertaker  and  his  party,  with  like 
emblems  of  authority,  accompany  the  other: 
and  if  it  is  any  advantage  to  have  a  numer- 
ous attendance,  without  comparison  the 
felon  has  the  greater  train. 

When  the  pangs  of  death  are  over,  does 
not  the  difierence  made  between  the  corpses 
consist  more  in  appearance  than  reality? — 
The  murderer  is  dissected  in  the  surgeon's 
hall,  gratis  ;  and  the  ricli  sinner  is  embow- 
eled in  his  own  apartment  at  great  expense. 

The  robber,  exposed  to  open  air,  wastes 
away  in  hoops  of  iron  ;  and  the  gentleman, 
confined  to  a  damp  vault,  molders  away  in 
sheets  of  lead:  and  while  the  fowls  of  the 
air  greedily  prey  upon  the  one,  the  vermin 
of  the  earth  eagerly  devour  the  other. 

And  if  you  consider  thern  as  launch-.ng 


PABT  II.]  MATTER    OF   FACT.  73 

into  the  world  of  spirits,  is  not  the  advan- 
tage, in  one  respect,  on  the  malefactor's 
side ?  He  is  solemnly  assured  he  must  die; 
and  when  the  death-warrant  comes  down, 
all  about  him  bid  him  prepare,  and  make 
the  best  of  his  short  time :  but  the  physician 
and  chaplain,  tiiends  and  attendants,  gen- 
erally flatter  the  honorable  sinner  to  the 
last.  And  what  is  the  consequence?  He 
either  sleeps  on  in  carnal  security,  till  death 
puts  an  end  to  all  his  delusive  dreams,  or, 
if  he  has  some  notion  that  he  must  repent, 
for  fear  of  discomposing  his  spirits,  he  still 
puts  it  ofi'  till  to-morrow ;  and,  in  the  midst 
of  his  delays,  God  says,  Thou  fool,  this 
night  thy  soul  shall  be  required  of  thee. — 
What  wonder  is  it  then,  if,  when  the  con- 
verted thief  goes  from  the  ignominious  tree 
to  paradise,  the  impenitent  rich  man  passes 
from  his  purple  bed  into  an  awful  eternity, 
and  there  lifts  up  his  eyes  in  ud  expected 
torments  % 

K  these  are  truths  too  obvious  to  be  de- 
nied, wilt  thou,  sinner,  as  the  thoughtless 
vulgar,  blunt  their  edge  by  saying,  with 
amazing  unconcern,  "Death  is  a  debt  we 
must  all  pay  to  nature?"  Alas!  this  is 
granting  the  point ;  for  if  all  have  contract- 
ed so  dreadful  a  debt,  all  are  in  a  corrupt 
and  lost  estate.  Kor  is  this  debt  to  be  paid 
to  nature,  but  to  justice ;  otherwise,  dying 
would  be  as  easy  as  sleeping,  or  any  other 


74  AN    APPEAL    TO  [part  II. 

natural  action :  but  it  is  beyond  expression 
terrible  to  thee,  Irom  whose  soul  the  Ke- 
deemer  has  not  extracted  sin,  the  monster's 
sting ;  and  if  thou  dost  not  see  it  now,  in 
the  most  alarming  light,  it  is  because  thou 
either  imaginest  it  at  a  great  distance,  or 
the  double  vail  of  rash  presumption,  and 
brutish  stupidity,  is  yet  upon  thy  hardened 
heart. 

Or  wilt  thou,  as  the  poor  heathens,  com- 
fort thyself  with  the  cruel  thought,  that 
"thoushalt  not  die  alone?"  Alas!  dying 
companions  may  increase,  but  can  not  take 
ofi'the  horror  of  dissolution.  Besides,  though 
we  live  in  a  crowd,  we  generally  die  alone: 
each  must  drink  that  bitter  cup,  as  if  he 
were  the  only  mortal  in  the  universe. 

What  must  we  do,  then,  in  such  deplora- 
ble circumstances?  What,  but  humble  om-- 
selves  in  the  dust,  and  bow  low  to  the  scep- 
ter of  Divine  justice  ;  confessing  that,  since 
the  righteous  God  has  condemned  us  to  cer- 
tain death,  and,  in  general,  to  a  far  more 
lingering  and  painful  death  than  murderers 
and  traitors  are  made  to  undergo,  we  are 
certainly  degenerate  creatures  and  capital 
offenders,  who  stand  in  absolute  need  of  an 
almighty  Redeemer. 

Permit  me  now,  candid  reader,  to  make 
a  solemn  appeal  to  thy  reason,  assisted  by 
the  fear  of  God.  From  all  tliat  has  been 
advanced,  does  it  not  a|)pL'ar  that  man  is  no 


PART  III.]  MATTER    OF   FACT.  75 

more  the  favored,  happy,  and  innocent  crea- 
ture he  was  when  he  came  out  of  the  hands 
of  his  infinitely  gi-acious  Creator?  And  is 
it  not  evident  that,  whether  we  consider 
him  as  born  into  this  disordered  world,  or 
dying  out  of  it,  or  passing  from  the  womb 
to  the  grave  under  a  variety  of  calamitous 
circumstances,  God's  providential  dealings 
with  him  prove  that  he  is,  by  nature,  in  a 
corrupt  and  lost  estate? 

A  part,  how  small,  of  tliis  terraqueous  globe 

Is  tenanted  by  man,  the  rest  a  waste. 

Rocks,  deserts,  frozen  seas,  and  burning  sands. 

Wild  haunts  of  monsters,  poisons,  stings,  and  death ; 

Such  is  earth's  melancholy  map  ;  but  far 

More  sad,  this  earth  is  a  true  map  of  man ; 

So  bounded  are  its  haughty  lord's  delights  ; 

So  wide  woe's  empire,  where  deep  troubles  toss, 

Loud  sorrows  howl,  enveuom'd  passions  bite, 

Ravenous  calamities  our  vitals  seize, 

And  threat'ning  fate  wide  opens  to  devour. — Young. 


THIRD  PART. 


"We  have  hitherto  considered  man  as  a 
miserable  inhabitant  of  a  wretched  world. 
We  have  seen  him  surrounded  by  multi- 
tudes of  wants-^pursued  by  legions  of  dis- 
tresses, maladies,  and  woes^ — aiTCsted  by 
the  king  of  terrors — cast  into  the  grave,  and 
shut  up  there,  the  loathsome  prey  of  coi*- 
niption  and  worms.     Let  us  now  consider 


76  AN    APPEA.L   TO  [PART  III. 

him  as  a  moral  agent ;  and,  by  examininaj 
his  disposition,  character,  and  conduct,  let 
us  see  whether  he  is  wisely  punished,  ac- 
cording to  the  sentence  of  impartial  justice ; 
or  wantonly  tormented,  at  the  caprice  of 
arbitrary  power. 

We  cUn  not  help  acknowledging,  it  is 
highly  reasonable,  first,  that  all  intelligent 
creatures  should  love,  reverence  and  obey 
their  Creator ;  because  he  is  most  eminently 
their  Father,  their  Master,  and  their  King : 
secondly,  that  they  should  assist,  support, 
and  love  each  other,  as  fellow-subjects,  fel- 
low-servants, and  children  of  the  same  uni- 
versal parent :  and,  thirdly,  that  they  should 
preserve  their  souls  and  bodies  in  peace  and 
purity ;  by  which  means  alone  they  can  be 
happy  in  themselves,  profitable  to  man,  and 
acceptable  to  God.  This  is  what  we  gen- 
erally call  natural  religion ;  which  is  evi- 
dently founded  upon  eternal  reason,  the  fit- 
ness of  things,  and  the  essential  relations 
of  persons. 

The  propriety  of  these  sanctions  is  so  self- 
evident,  that  the  Gentiles,  who  have  not  the 
written  law,  are  a  law  to  themselves,  and 
do — ^but,  alas  !  how  seldom,  and  from  what 
motives :— the  things  contained  in  the  law ; 
thus  showing  that  the  work,  the  sum  and 
substance  ot  the  law,  though  much  blotted 
by  the  fall,  is  still  written  in  the  heart. — 
IN  or  will  it  be  erased  thence,  in  hell  itself; 


PART  III.J  MATTER    OF   FACT.  77 

for .  nothing  but  a  sight  of  the  equity  of 
God's  law  can  clear  his  vindictive  justice  in 
the  guilty  breast,  give  a  scorpion's  sting  to 
the  worm  that  gnaws  the  stubborn  offender, 
and  arm  his  upbraiding  conscience  with  a 
whip  of  biting  serpents. 

Since  the  moral  law  so  strongly  recom- 
mends itself  to  reason,  let  us  see  how  uni- 
versally it  is  observed  or  broken ;  so  shall 
matter  of  fact  decide,  whether  we  are  pure 
and  upright,  or  polluted  and  depraved. 

TWELFTH    ARGUMENT. 

Those  who  reject  the  Scriptures,  univer- 
sally agree  that  all  have  sinned,  and  that 
in  many  things  we  offend  all.  Hence,  it 
appears  that  persons  of  various  constitutions, 
ranks,  and  education,  in  all  nations,  reli- 
gions, times,  and  places,  are  born  in  such  a 
state  and  with  such  a  nature,  and  they 
infallibly  commit  many  sins  in  thought, 
word,  or  deed. 

But  one  transgression  would  be  sufficient 
to  render  them  obnoxious  to  God's  displeas- 
ure, and  to  bring  them  under  the  fearful 
curse  of  his  broken  law ;  for,  even  according 
to  the  statutes  of  this  realm,  a  man  who 
once  robs  a  traveler  of  a  small  sum  of  money, 
forfeits  his  life,  as  well  as  the  bloody  high- 
wayman, who  for  years  barbarously  murders 
all  those  whom  he  stops,  and  accumulates 
immense  wealth  by  his  repeated  barbarities. 


78  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PART  m. 

The  reason  is  obvious:  both  incur  the 
penalty  of  the  law  which  forbids  robbery ; 
for  both  eflectually  break  it,  though  one 
does  it  oftener,  and  with  far  more  aggra- 
vating circumstances  than  the  other.  So 
sure,  then,  as  one  robbery  deserves  the 
gallows,  one  sin  deserves  death ;  for  the  soul 
that  sinneth,  says  God's  law,  and  not  the 
soul  that  committetli  so  many  sins,  of  such 
or  such  a  heinousness,  it  shall  die.  Hence 
it  is  that  the  first  sin  of  the  first  man  was 
punished  both  with  spiritual  and  bodily 
death,  and  with  ten  thousand  other  evils. 
The  justice  of  this  sanction  will  appear  in  a 
satisfactory  light,  if  we  consider  the  follow- 
ing remarks : 

1.  In  our  present  natural  state,  we  are 
such  strangers  to  God's  glory  and  the  spir- 
ituality of  his  law,  and  we  are  so  used  to 
drink  the  deadly  poison  of  iniquity  like 
water,  that  we  have  no  idea  of  the  horror 
which  should  seize  upon  us  after  a  breach 
of  the  divine  law.  We  are,  tlierefore,  as 
unfit  judges  of  the  atrociousness  of  sin,  as 
lawless,  hardened  assassins,  who  shed  hu- 
man blood  like  water,  are  of  the  heinious- 
ness  of  murder. 

2.  As  every  willful  sin  arises  from  a  dis- 
regard of  that  sovereign  authority,  which  is 
equally  stamped  upon  all  the  command- 
ments, it  hath  in  it  the  principle  and  nature 


PART  m.]  MATTER    OF   FACT.  *       79 

of  all  possible  iniquity ;  that  is,  the  disre- 
gard and  contempt  of  the  Almighty. 

3.  There  is  no  proper  merit  before  God  in 
the  longest  and  most  exact  course  of  obedi- 
ence, but  infinite  demerit  in  one,  even  the 
last  act  of  willful  disobedience.  When  we 
have  done  all  that  is  commanded  us,  we  are 
still  unprofitable  servants ;  for  the  self-suflfi- 
cient  God  has  no  more  need  of  us,  than  a 
mighty  monarch  has  of  the  vilest  insect  that 
creeps  in  the  dust  beneath  his  feet:  and  our 
best  actions,  strictly  speaking,  deserve  abso- 
lutely nothing  from  our  Creator  and  .Pre- 
server, because  we  owe  him  all  we  have, 
and  are,  and  can  possibly  .be.  But  if  we 
transgress  in  one  point,  we  ruin  all  our 
obedience,  and  expose  ourselves  to  the  just 
penalty  of  his  broken  law.  The  following 
example  may  illustrate  this  observation : 

K  a  rich  man  gives  a  thousand  meals  to 
an  indigent  neighbor,  he  acts  only  as  a 
man  —  he  does  nothing  but  his  duty — and 
the  Judge  allows  him  no  reward.  But  if  he 
gives  him  only  one  dose  of  poison,  he  act& 
as  a  murderer,  and  must  die  a  shameful 
death ;  so  greatly  does  one  act  of  sin  out- 
weigh a  thousand  acts  of  obedience  1  How 
exceedingly  absurd,  then,  is  the  common 
notion,  that  our  good  works  counterbalance 
our  bad  ones !     Add  to  this  that, 

4.  Guilt  necessarily  rises  in  proportion  to 
the  baseness  of  tlie  ofiender,  the  gi-eatness 


80        *  AN    APPEAL    TO  [PAET   m. 

of  the  favors  conferred  upon  him,  and  the 
dignity  of  the  person  offended.  An  insult- 
ing behavior  to  a  servant  is  a  fault,  to  a 
magistrate  it  is  a  crime,  to  a  king  it  is  trea- 
son. And  what  is  willful  sin,  but  an  injury 
offered  by  an  impotent  rebel,  to  the  infin- 
itely-powerful Lawgiver  of  the  universe,  to 
the  kindest  of  benefactors,  to  the  gracious 
Creator  and  Preserver  of  men — an  insult 
given  10  the  supreme  Majesty  of  heaven  and 
earth,  in  whose  glorious  presence  the  dignity 
of  the  greatest  potentates  and  archangels  as 
truly  disappears  as  the  splendor  of  the  stars 
in  the  blaze  of  the  meridian  sun?  Sin, 
therefore,  flying  into=  the  face  of  such  a 
Lawgiver,  Benelactor,  and  Monarch,  has  in 
it  a  kind  of  infinite  demerit  from  its  infinite 
object;  and  rebellious,  ungrateful,  wretched 
man,  who  commits  it  a  thousand  times  with 
a  thousand  aggravations,  may,  in  the  nerv- 
ous language  of  our  Church,  be  said,  in 
some  sense,  to  deserve  a  thousand  hells,  if 
there  were  so  many. 

THLBTEENTH    ARGUMENT. 

Our  natural  depravity  manifests  itself  by 
constant  omissions  of  duty,  as  much  as  by 
flagrant  commissions  of  sin,  and  perhaps 
much  more.  Take  one  instance  out  of  many 
that  might  be  produced.  Constant  displays 
of  persevering  goodness,  and  presents  unde- 
servedly and  uninterruptedly  bestowed  upon 


PART  III.]  MATTER    OF   FACT.  81 

ms,  deserve  a  perpetual  tribute  of  heart-felt 
gratitude  ;  God  demands  it  in  his  law ;  and 
conscience,  his  agent  in  our  souls,  declares 
it  ought  in  justice  to  be  paid. 

But  where  shall  we  find  a  Deist  properly 
conscious  of  what  he  owes  the  supreme 
Being  for  his  "creation,  preservation,  and 
all  the  blessings  of  his  life  ? "  And  where 
a  Christian,  duly  sensible  of  "God's  inesti- 
mable love  in  the  redemption  of  the  world 
by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ?"  A  due  sense 
of  his  ever-multiplied  mercies  would  fill  our 
souls  with  never-ceasing  wonder,  and  make 
our  lips  overflow  with  rapturous  praise.  The 
poet's  language  would  suit  our  grateful  sen- 
sations, and,  without  exaggeration,  paint 
the  just  ardor  of  our  transports : 

"  Bound,  every  heart,  aud  every  bosom  burn ; 
Praise,  flow  forever,  (if  astonishment 
Will  give  thee  leave,)  my  praise,  forever  flow- 
Praise  ardent,  cordial,  constant,"  etc. 

Is  not  any  thing  short  of  this  thankful 
frame  of  mind  a  sin  of  omission,  a  degree 
of  ingratitude,  of  wnich  all  are  naturally 
guilty,  and  for  which,  it  is  to  be  feared,  the 
best  owe  ten  thousand  talents  both  to  Divine 
goodness  and  justice? 

Throw  only  a  few  bones  to  a  dog,  and 
you  win  him;  he  follows  you;  your  word 
becomes  his  law ;  upon  the  first  motion  of 
your  hand  he  flies  through  land  and  water 
to  execute  your  commands :  obedience  is  his 
6 


82  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PART   III. 

delight,  and  your  presence  his  paradise :  he 
convinces  yon  of  it  by  all  the  demonstra- 
tions of  joy  which  he  is  capable  of  giving ; 
and  if  he  unhappily  loses  sight  of  you,  he 
exei-ts  all  his  sagacity  to  trace  your  foot- 
steps ;  nor  will  he  rest  till  he  finds  his  bene- 
factor again. 

Shall  a  brute  be  so  thankful  to  a  man  for 
some  offals,  while  man  himself  is  so  lull  of 
ingratitude  to  God  who  created  him,  pre- 
serves his  life  from  destruction,  and  hourly 
crowns  him  with  mercies  and  loving-kind- 
ness ?  How  should  shame  cover  our  guilty 
faces  ?  Surely,  if  the  royal  prophet  could 
say  he  was  as  a  beast  before  God,  may  we  not 
well  confess  that,  in  point  of  gratitude,  we 
are  worse  than  the  dullest  and  most  stupid 
part  of  the  brute  creation  ?  For  even  the  ox, 
says  the  Lord,  knoweth  his  owner,  and  the 
ass  his  master's  crib;  but  Israel  doth  not 
know  me,  my  people  doth  not  consider  my 
daily  favors.  And  if  the  very  heathens 
affirm,  that  to  call  a  man  ungratefal  to  a 
human  benefactor,  was  to  say  of  him  all. 
possible  evil  in  one  word,*  how  can  we  ex- 
press the  baseness  and  depravity  of  man- 
kind, who  are  universally  so  ungrateful  to 
so  bounteous  a  benefactor  as  God  himself. 

*  Ingratum  si  dixeris,  omnia  dicis. — Juv. 


i»AET  III.]  MATTEU    OF    1- Act.  831 


FOURTEENTH    ARGUMENT. 

But  though  we  seem  made  of  cold  inat- 
tention, when  the  sigjit  of  Divine  mercies 
should  kindle  our  hearts  into  gratitude  and 
praise,  we  soon  get  out  ox  this  languid  frame 
of  mind  ;  for,  in  the  pursuit  of  sensual  grat- 
ifications, we  are  all  activity  and  warmth; 
we  seem  an  ardent  compound  of  life  and 
fire. 

What  can  be  the  reason  of  this  amazing 
difterence?  What  but  rebelJious  sense  and 
wanton  appetite,  raised  at  the  sight  or  idea 
of  some  forbidden  object!  The  bait  of 
pleas m-e  appears — corrupt  nature  summons 
all  her  powers — every  nerve  of  expectation 
is  stretched — every  pulse  of  desire  beats 
high — the  blood  is  in  a  general  ferment — 
the  spirits  are  in  a  universal  hurry — and 
though  the  hook  of  a  fatal  consequence  is 
often  apparent,  the  alluring  bait  must  be 
swallowed.  The  fear  of  God,  the  most  in- 
estimable of  all  treasures,  is  already  gone  • 
and  ii'  the  sinful  gratification  cannot  be  en- 
joyed upon  any  other  term,  a  good  reputa- 
tion shall  go  also.  Reason,  indeed,  makes 
remonstrances ;  but  the  loud  clamors  of 
flesh  and  blood  soon  drown  her  soft  whis- 
pers. The  carnal  mind  steps  imperiously 
upon  the  throne ;  sense,  that  conquers  the 
greatest  conquerors,  bears  down  all  opposi- 
tion ;  the  yielding  man  is  led  captive  hy  a 


84  AN  APPEAL   TO  [part  Hi 

brutish  lust ;  and  while  angels  blush,  there 
<i8  joy  in  hell  over  the  actual  and  complete 
degradation  of  a  heaven-born  spirit. 

Some,  indeed,  affirm  that  these  conflicts 
suit  a  state  of  probation  and  trial.  But  it 
is  evident  that  either  our  temptations  are 
too  violent  for  our  strength,  or  our  strength 
too  weak  for  our  temptations ;  since,  not- 
standing  the  additional  help  of  Divine  grace, 
there  never  was  a  mere  mortal  over  whom 
they  never  triumphed. 

Nor  can  we  exculpate  ourselves  by  plead- 
ing, that  these  triumphs  of  sense  over  rea- 
son are  neither  long  nor  frequent.  Alas  1 
how  many  perpetrate  an  act  of  wickedness 
in  a  moment,  and  suffer  death  itself  for  a 
crime  which  they  never  repeated  ! 
-  See  that  crystal  vessel.  Its  brightness 
,  and  brittleness  represent  the  shining  and 
delicate  nature  of  true  virtue.  K  I  let  it 
fall,  and  break  it,  what  avails  it  to  say,  "  I 
never  broke  it  before ;  I  dropped  it  but 
once  ;  I  am  excessively  sorry  for  my  care- 
lessness :  I  will  set  the  pieces  together,  and 
never  break  it  again  ?''  Will  these  excuses 
and  resolutions  prevent  the  vessel  from  be- 
ing broken — broken  forever?  The  reader 
may  easily  make  the  application. 

Even  heathen  moralists,  by  their  fabulous 
account  of  the  companions  of  Ulysses  turn- 
ed into  swine  upon  drinking  once  of  Circe's 
enchanted  cup,  teach  us,  that  one  fall  into 


PART  III.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  85 

sensuality  turns  a  man  into  a  brute,  just 
as  one  slip  into  unchastity  or  dishonesty 
changes  a  modest  woman  into  a  strumpet, 
or  an  honest  man  into  a  thief.     Again  : 

Ought  not  reason  to  have  as  absolute  a 
command  over  appetite,  as  a  skillful  rider 
has  over  a  well-broken  horse  ?  But  suppose 
we  saw  all  horsemen  universally  mastered, 
one  time  or  other,  by  their  beasts,  and  forced, 
though  but  for  a  few  minutes,  to  receive  the 
bit,  and  go  or  stop  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
wanton  brutes  ;  should  we  not  wonder,  and 
justly  infer,  that  man  had  lost  the  kind  of 
superiority  which  he  still  maintains  over 
domestic  animals  ?  *  And  what,  then,  but 
the  commonness  of  the  case,  can  prevent 
our  being  sliocked  when  we  see  rational 
creatures  overcome  and  led  captive  by  car- 
nal appetites  ?  Is  not  this  tlie  wanton,  re- 
bellious beast,  mounting  upon  his  vauquish- 
ed,  dastardly  rider  ? 

We  may  then  conclude,  that  the  univer- 
sal rebellion  of  our  lower  faculties  against 
our  superior  powers,  and  the  triumphs  of 
sense  over  reason,  demonstrate  that  human 
nature  has  suffered  as  fatal  a  revolution  as 
these  kingdoms  did  when  a  degraded  king 
was  seen  bleeding  on  the  scaffold,  and  a 
base  usurper  lording  it  in  the  seat  of  ma- 
jesty. 


86  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PAET  m. 


FIFTEENTH    ARGUMENT. 

Happy  would  it  be  for  us,  if  our  fall  man- 
ifested itself  only  by  some  ti-ansient  advant- 
ages of  sense  over  reason.  But,  alas  !  the 
experience  of  the  best  demonstrates  the  truth 
of  Isaiah's  words,  The  whole  head  is  sick. 
-V^  To  say  nothing  of  the  gross  stupidity 
^  and  unconquerable  ignorance  that  keeps 
the  generality  of  mankind  just  above  the 
level  of  brutes,  how  strong,  how  clear  is  the 
understanding  of  men  of  sense  in  worldly 
affairs  !  How  weak,  how  dark  in  spiritual 
things  !  How  few  idiots  are  there  but  can 
distinguish  between  the  shadow  and  the 
substance,  the  cup  and  the  liquor,  the  dress 
and  the  person !  But  how  many  learned 
men,  to  this  day,  see  no  difference  between 
water  baptism  and  spiritual  regeneration, 
between  the  means  of  grace  and  grace  itself, 
between- the  form  and  power  of  godliness! 
At  our  devotions,  is  not  our  mind  generally 
like  the  roving  butterfly  ?  and  at  our  favor- 
ite diversions,  and  lucrative  business,  like 
the  fastening  leech?  Can  it  not  fix  itself  on 
anything  sooner  than  on  the  one  thing  need- 
ful;  and  find  out  any  way  before  that  of 
peace  and  salvation  ? 

Wliat  can  be  more  extravagant  than  our 
imagination  f  How  often  have  we  caught 
this  wild  power  forming  and  pursuing  phan 


PAKT  III. J  MATTER    OF    FACT.  87 

toms,  bill] -ling  and  pulling  down  castles  in 
the  air !  how  li'jquently  hath  it  raised  us 
into  proud  conceit,  an  1  tlien  sunk  us  into 
gloomy  apprehensions  !  And  where  is  the 
man  that  t  never  led  into  such  menta!^ 
-scenes  of  vanity  and  lewdness,  as  would 
have  made  him  the  object  of  universal  con- 
tempt, if  the  vail  of  a  grave  and  modest 
■countenance  had  not  happily  concealed  him 
from  public  notice. 

And  has  our  Memory  escaped  unimpair-  '^—f 
ed  by  the  fall?  Alas !  let  us  only  consider, 
how  easilj^  we  forg<?t  the  favors  of  our  Crea- 
tor, and  recollect  the  injuries  of  our  fellow- 
creatures  ;  how  little  we  retain  of  a  good 
book  or  pious  discourse,  and  how  much  of  a 
play  or  frivolous  conversation  ;  and  how  ex- 
actly we  remember  an  invitation  to  a  pai-ty 
of  pleasure,  while  the  loudest  calls  to  turn  to 
Ood  and  prepare  for  death,  are  no  sooner 
heard  than  forgotten :  let  us,  I  say,  consider 
these  things,  and  we  shall  be  forced  to  con- 
fess that  this  useful  power  loses  like  a  sieve 
the  living  water  of  truth,  drinks  in  like  a 
sponge  the  muddy  streams  of  vanity,  and  is 
never  so  retentive  as  when  it  is  excited  by 
revenge,  or  some  other  detestable  temper. 

"  A  wretch  that  is  condemned  to  die  to- 
mon-ow  cannot  forget  it,"  says  Baxter:  "yet 
poor  sinners,  who  are  uncertain  to  live  an 
hour,  and  certain  speedily  to  see  the  majesty 
:Of  .the  Lord,  to  tlieir  inconceivable  joy  or 


88  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PART   IH. 

terror,  can  forget  these  things,  for  which 
they  have  their  memory,  and  which,  one 
would  think,  shonld  drown  the  matters  of 
this  world,  as  the  report  of  a  cannon  does  a 
whisper,  or  as  the  sun  obscures  the  poorest 
glow-worm.  O  wonderful  stupidity  of  an 
nnregenerate  soul !  O  astonishing  distrac- 
tion of  the  ungodly  1  That  eveiy  man  can 
forget  eternal  joy,  eternal  woe,  the  eternal 
God,  and  the  place  of  their  unchangeable 
abode ;  when  they  stand  even  at  the  door, 
and  there  is  but  the  thin  vail  of  flesli  be- 
tween them  and  that  amazing  sight,  that 
eternal  gulf,  into  which  thousands  are  daily 
plunging." 

Nor  does  our  reason  *  make  us  amends 
for  the  defects  of  our  other  faculties.  Its 
beams,  it  is  true,  wonderfully  guide  some 
persons  through  the  circle  of  sciences,  and 
the  mazes  of  commercial  or  political  affairs. 
But  when  it  should  lead  us  in  the  search  of 
the  truth  which  is  after  godliness,  unless  it 
is  assisted  from  above,  how  are  its  faint  ra}^ 
obstructed  by  the  gross  medium  of  flesh  and 
blood,  broken  by  that  of  passion,  and  some- 
times lost  in  tliat  cf  prejudice?  Wise  sons 
of  reason,  learned  philosophers,  your  two 
hundred  and  eighty-eight  opinions  concern- 
ing the  chief  good,  are  a  multiplied  proof  of 

*  By  reason  I  raean  tba'  power  by  wbich  we  pass 
judgment  upon,  and  draw  inferences  from,  what  th& 
understanding  has  simply  apprehended. 


PART    m.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  89 

my  sad  assertion:  all  miss  the  mark.  Not 
one  of  them  makes  the  supreme  felicity  to 
consist  m  the  knowledge  and  enjoyment  of 
God,  the  amiable  and  adorable  Parent  of  all 
gocd. 

True  reason,  alas  1  is  as  rare  as  true  piety. 
The  poor  thing,  which,  in  spiritual  matters, 
the  world  calls  reason,  is  only  the  ape  of 
that  noble  faculty.  How  partial,  how  un- 
reasonable *  is  this  false  pretender !  K  it 
does  not  altogether  overlook  the  awful 
realities  of  the  invisible  world,  which  is  too 
frequently  the  case,  how  busy  is  it  to  reason 
away  faith,  and  raise  objections  against  the 
most  evident  truth,f  even  that  which  I  now 

*  Our  earth's  the  bedlam  of  the  universe. 
Where  Reason  (undiseased  in  heaven)  runs  mad, 
And  nurses  folly's  children  as  her  own. 
Fond  of  the  foulest. — YouNa. 

t  A  late  publication,  in  vindication  of  Pelagianism, 
appears  to  me  no  small  instance  of  this.  The  reverend 
author  takes  his  estimate  of  human  nature,  not  from 
universal  experience,  but  his  indulged  imagination ;  not 
from  St.  Paul,  the  chief  of  the  apostles,  but  from  Dr. 
Taylor,  to  whom  he  acknowledges  his  obligations  for 
several  of  the  best  passages  in  his  sermon.  Passing 
over  the  exposition  of  his  text,  where  he  oddly  supposes 
that  our  Lord  meant,  by  the  drawing  of  God,  the  natu- 
ral powers  of  man,  which  is  as  reasonable  as  to  suppose 
that  when  he  said,  Without  me  ye  can  do  nothing,  he 
meant  that  me  should  signify  ourselves.  Passing  this 
over,  I  shall  just  point  out  his  capital  mistake.  He 
tells  us  that  all  our  faculties  and  powers  are  good  and 
beautiful  in  their  order,  (that  they  were  so  before  the 
fall  is  fully  granted,)  and  tend  naturally  to  the  happi 


90  AN    APPEAL    TO  [PART    HI. 

contend  for?  And  when  right  reason  has 
been  worsted  by  sense,  how  ready  is  the 

neSvS  both  of  the  individual  and  of  the  system  ;  and  he 
adds,  how  weak  soever  and  imperfect  our  intellectual 
faculties  may  be,  yet  to  speak  reproachfully  of  them  in 
general  is  a  species  of  blasphemy  against  our  Creator. 
If  to  expose  the  present  weakness  of  our  rational  facul- 
ties, and  show  how  greatly  they  are  disordered  and 
impaired  by  the  fall,  is  what  this  divine  calls  speaking 
reproachfully  of  them,  have  not  the  best  men  been 
guilty  of  this  pi-etended  blasphemy  ?  How  far  the  sa- 
cred writers  carried  it,  may  be  seen  in  the  first  part  of 
this  treatise.  ******* 
Far  from  seeing  that  all  the  faculties  and  powers,  by 
which  this  is  done,  are  good  and  beautiful,  I  cannot 
help  thinking  that  some  of  them  are  materially  defect- 
ive ;  and  that  though  such  a  conduct  may  very  much 
tend  to  the  emolument  of  the  individual,  it  has  little 
tendency  to  the  happiness  of  the  system.  For  my  part, 
were  I  to  commence  advocate  for  the  uprightness  of 
human  nature,  I  would  save  appearances,  lest  Dr.  Tay- 
lor himself  should  say,  Non  defensoribus  istis,  etc.  But 
dropping  this  point,  I  appeal  to  common  sense  :  who  is 
most  guilty  of  blasphemy  against  our  Creator,  he  who 
says  God  made  man  both  holy  and  happy,  affirming 
that  the  present  weakness  of  our  rational  powers  is  en- 
tirely owing  to  the  original  apostasy  of  mankind,  or  he 
who  intimates  that  the  gracious  Author  of  our  being 
formed  our  intellectual  faculties  weak  and  imperfect  as 
they  now  are  ?  If  it  is  not  the  latter,  my  understanding 
is  strangely  defective.  In  vain  does  this  learned  divine 
tell  lis,  that  the  candle  of  the  Lord  which  was  lighted 
up  in  man  at  first,  when  the  inspiration  of  the  Almighty 
gave  him  understanding,  was  not  extinguished  by  the 
original  apostasy,  but  has  kept  burning  ever  since,  and 
that  the  divine  flame  has  catched  from  father  to  son,  and 
has  been  propagated  quite  down  to  the  present  genera- 
tion. If  it  is  reasonable  to  charge  with  a  species  of 
blasphemy  tliose  who  reverence  their  Creator  too  mach 
to  father  our  present  state  of  imperfection  upon  hira,  I 
narst  coiifess  my  reason  fails.     I  bayo  outlived  the  di- 


PART  m  ]  MATTER   OF    FACT.  91 

imposter  to  plead  against  tlie  faculty  which 
it  personates !  How  skillful  in  cloaking 
bad  habits  under  the  genteel  name  of  "  hu- 
man foibles ! "  And  how  ingenious  in  de- 
fending the  most  irrational  and  dangerous 
methods  of  losing  time,  as  "innocent  sports 
and  harmless  diversions !  " 

These  observations,  which  must  appear 
self-evident  to  all  who  know  the  world  oi 
themselves,  incontestibly  prove  the  degen- 
eracy of  all  our  rational  powers,  and,  con- 
sequently, the  universality  of  our  natural 
corruption. 

SIXTEENTH    ARGUMENT. 

When  the  whole  head  is  sick,  is  not  the 
whole  heart  faint  ?  Can  our  will,  conscience, 
and  affections  run  parallel  to  the  line  of 
duty,  when  our  understanding,  imagination, 
memory,  and  reason,  are  so  much  warped 
from  original  rectitude  ?  Impossible !  Ex- 
perience, thou  best  of  judges,  I  appeal  to 
thee.  Erect  thy  fair  tribunal  in  the  reader's 
breast,  and  bear  an  honest  testimony  of  the 
truth  of  the  following  assertions. 

Our  will^  in  general,  is  full  of  obstinacy ; 

vine  flame  for  one,  or  it  never  catched  from  my  father 
to  me.  A  fear  lest  some  well-meaning  person  should 
mistake  the  taper  of  Pelagius,  or  the  lamp  of  Dr.  Tay- 
lor, for  the  candle  of  the  Lord,  and  follow  it  in  the  de- 
structive paths  of  eiTor,  extorts  this  note  from  my  pen. 
See  the  objections  that  follow  the  twenty-second  Argu- 
ment, 


92  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PAET  m. 

we  must  have  our  own  way,  right  or  wrong. 
'Tis  pregnant  with  inconstancy:  we  are 
passionately  fond  of  a  thing  one  day,  and 
tired  of  it  the  next ;  we  form  good  resolu- 
tions in  the  morning,  and  break  them  before 
night.  'Tis  impotent:  when  we  see  what 
is  right,  instead  of  doing  it  with  all  our 
might,  we  frequently  remain  as  inactive  as 
if  we  were  bound  by  invisible  chains ;  and 
we  wonder  by  what  charms  the  wheels  of 
duty  thus  stop  against  our  apparent  inclina- 
tion, till  we  discover  that  the  spring  of  our 
will  is  broken,  or  naturally  works  the  wrong 
way ;  yes,  it  is  not  only  unable  to  follow  the 
good,  that  the  understanding  approves,  but 
mil  of  perverseness  to  pursue  the  evil,  that 
reason  disapproves.  We  are  prone  to  do, 
contrary  to  our  design,  those  things  which 
breed  remorse  and  wound  conscience:  and, 
sooner  or  later,  we  may  all  say  with  the 
heathen  princess  who  was  going  to  murder 
her  child, 

Video  meliora,  proboque, 
Deteriora  sequor* 

Nor  is  conscience  itself  untainted.  Alas ! 
how  slow  is  it  to  reprove  in  some  cases !  In 
others,  how  apt  not  to  do  it  at  all !  In  one 
person,  it  is  easy  under  mountains  of  guilt ; 
and  in  another,  it  is  unreasonably  scrupulous 

*  If  the  reader  v>  ants  to  know  tlie  English  of  these 
words,  he  may  find  it  in  Rom.  vii,  15. 


PART  III.]  MATTER   OF    FACT.  93 

about  mere  trifles;  it  either  strains  at  a 
gnat,  or  swallows  a  camel;  when  it  is 
alarmed,  in  some  it  shows  itself  ready  to  be 
made  easy  by  every  wrong  method;  in  oth- 
ers, it  obstinately  refuses  to  be  pacified  by 
the  right.  To-day,  you  may  with  propriety 
compare  it  to  a  dumb  dog,  that  does  not 
bark  at  a  thief;  and  to-morrow,  to  a  snarl- 
ing cm-,  that  flies  indifferently  at  a  friend,  a 
foe,  or  a  shadow,  and  then  madly  turns  upon 
himself,  and  tears  his  own  flesh. 

K  conscience,  the  best  power  of  the  un- 
converted man,  is  so  corrupt,  good  God! 
what  are  his  affections?  Almost  perpetu- 
ally deficient  in  some,  and  excessive  in 
others,  when  do  they  attain  to,  or  stop  at, 
the  line  of  moderation?  Who  can  tell  how 
oft  he  has  been  the  sport  of  their  irregularity 
and  violence?  One  hour  we  are  hurried 
into  rashness  by  their  impetuosity :  the  next, 
we  are  bound  in  sloth  by  their  inactivity. 
Sometimes  every  blast  of  foolish  hope,  or 
ill-grounded  fear ;  every  gale  of  base  desire, 
or  unreasonable  aversion ;  every  wave  of 
idolatrous  love,  or  sinful  hatred ;  every  sm-ge 
of  misplaced  admiration,  or  groundless  hor- 
ror; every  billow  of  noisy  joy,  or  undue 
sorrow,  tosses,  raises,  or  sinks  our  soul,  as  a 
ship  in  a  storm,  which  has  neither  rudder 
nor  ballast.  At  other  times  we  are  totally 
becalmed ;  all  our  sails  are  furled  ;  not  one 
breath  of  devout  or  human  affection  stirs  in 


94  Aif    APPEAL   TO  [PAKT  II!* 

our  stoical,  frozen  breast-  and  we  remain 
stupidly  insensible,  till  the  spark  of  tempta- 
tion, dropping  upon  the  combustible  matter 
in  our  hearts,  blows  us  up  again  into  loud 
passion ;  and  then  how  dreadiul  and  ridicu- 
lous together  is  the  new  explosion ! 

If  experience  pronounces  that  these  reflect 
tions  are  just,  the  point  is  gained.  Our 
whole  heart  is  faint,  through  the  unaccount- 
able disorders  of  our  will,  the  lethargy  or 
boisterous  fits  of  our  conscience,  and  the 
swooning,  or  high  fever,  of  our  affections; 
and  we  may,  without  hypocrisy,  join  in  our 
daily  confession,  and  say,  '^  There  is  no 
health  in  us." 

SEVENTEENTH    ARGUMENT* 

The  danger  of  these  complicated  maladies 
of  our  souls,  evidences  itself,  by  the  most 
fatal  of  all  symptoms,  our  manifest  aliena^ 
tion  from  God.  Yes,  shocking  as  the  con- 
fession is,  we  must  make  it,  if  truth  has  any 
dominion  in  our  breast:  unrenewed  man 
loves  not  his  God.  That  eternal  beauty,  for 
whose  contemplation,  that  supreme  good, 
for  whose  enjoyment  he  was  created,  is  gen- 
erally forgotten,  despised,  or  hated.  If  the 
thought  of  his  Holy  Majesty  presents  itself 
he  looks  upon  it  as  an  intruder;  it  lays  him 
under  as  disagreeable  a  restraint  as  that 
which  the  presence  of  a  grave,  pious  master, 
puts  upon  a  wanton,  idle  servant ;  nor  can 


^ABT  m.]  MATTEJt   OF   FACT.  95 

he -quietly  pursne  his  sinftil  courses,  till  he 
has  driven  away  the  troublesome  idea;  or 
imagined,  with  the  epicure,  a  careless  God, 
who  wants  resolution  to  call  him  to  an  ac- 
count, and  justice  to  punish  him  for  his 
iniquity. 

Does  any  one  offer  an  indignity  to  his 
favorite  friend,  or  only  speak  contemptuously 
of  the  object  of  his  esteem,  he  feels  as  if  he 
was  the  person  insulted,  and  reddening  with 
indignation,  directly  espouses  his  cause ;  but 
every  body,  the  meanest  of  his  attendants 
not  excepted,  may  with  impunity  insult  the 
King  of  kings  in  his  presence,  and  take  the 
most  profane  liberties  with  his  name  and 
word,  his  laws  and  ministers ;  he  hears  the 
wild  blasphemy,  and  regards  it  not;  he  sees 
the  honid  outrage,  and  resents  it  not;  and 
yet,  amazing  infatuation!  he  pretends  to 
love  God. 

If  he  goes  to  the  play,  he  can  fix  his 
roving  eyes  and  wandering  mind,  three 
hours  together  upon  the  same  trifling  object, 
not  only  without  weariness,  but  with  un- 
common delight.  If  he  has  an  appointment 
with  the  person  whom  he  adores  as  a  deity, 
his  spirits  are  elevated  —  expectation  and 
joy  flutter  in  his  dilated  breast — he  sweetly 
anticipates  the  pleasing  interview,  or  impa- 
tiently chides  the  slowly-flowing  minutes ; 
his  feelings  are  inexpressible.  But  if  he 
attends  the  great  congregation,  which  he  too 


96  AN   APPEAL  TO  [PART  Ifl* 

often  omits  upon  the  most  frivolous  pi;e- 
tenses,  it  is  rather  out  of  form  and  decency, 
than  out  of  devotion  and  love ;  rather  with 
indifference  or  reluctance,  than  with  delight 
and  transport.  And  when  he  is  present 
there,  how  absent  are  his  thoughts  1  How 
wandering  his  eyes !  How  trifling,  supine, 
irreverent  *  his  whole  behavior !  He  would 
be  ashamed  to  speak  to  the  meanest  of  his 
servants  with  as  little  attention  as  he  some- 
times prays  to  the  Majesty  of  heaven.  Were 
he  to  stare  about  when  he  gives  them  orders, 
as  he  does  when  he  presents  his  supplica- 
tions to  the  Lord  of  lords,  he  would  be 
afraid  they  would  think  he  was  half  drnnk, 
or  had  a  touch  of  lunacy. 

Suppose  he  still  retains  a  sense  of  out- 
ward decency,  while  the  church  goes  tlirough 
her  solemn  oflices ;  yet  how  heavy  are  his 
spirits !  how  heartless  his  confessions !  how 
cold  his  prayers!  The  blessing  comes  at 
last,  and  he  is  blessed  indeed — not  with  the 
grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the 
fellowship  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  for  that  he 
gladly  leaves  to  ''poor  enthusiasts" — but 
with  a  release  from  his   confinement  and 


*  Men  homage  pay  to  men, 
Thoughtless  beneath  whose  dreadful  eye  they  bow 
In  mutual  awe  profound,  of  clay  to  clay. 
Of  guilt  to  guilt,  and  turn  their  backs  on  Thee, 
Great  Sire !  whom  thrones  celestial  ceaseless  sing  ; 
To  prostrate  angels  an  amazing  scene! — Young 


PART  III.J  MATTER   OF   FACT.  97 

tedious  work.  And  now  that  he  has  "done 
:  is  duty,  and  served  God,"  he  hastens  away 
to  the  company  that  suits  his  taste. 

See  him  there.  Do  not  his  very  looks 
declare  he  is  in  his  own  element?  With 
what  eagerness  of  spirit,  energy  of  gesture, 
and  volubility  of  tongue,  does  he  talk  over 
his  last  entertainment,  chase,  or  bargain? 
Does  not  the  oil  of  cheerfulness  make  all 
his  motions  as  free  and  easy  as  if  weight 
and  friction  had  no  place  at  all  in  his  light 
and  airy  frame? 

•  Love  of  God,  thou  sweetest,  strongest  of 
all  powers,  didst  thou  ever  thus  metamor- 
phose his  soul,  and  impart  such  a  sprightly 
activity  to  his  body?  And  you  that  con- 
verse most  familiarly  with  him,  did  you  ever 
hear  him  say,  Come,  and  I  will  tell  you 
what  the  Lord  has  done  for  my  soul:  taste, 
and  see  how  good  the  Lord  is?  No,  never; 
for  out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart  the 
mouth  speaketh ;  nor  can  it  be  expected  that 
God,  wlio  hath  no  place  in  his  joyous  reflec- 
tions, should  have  one  in  his  cheerful  con- 
versation. On  the  contrary,  it  will  be 
matter  of  surprise  to  those  who  introduce 
the  delightful  subject  of  the  love  of  God,  if 
he  does  not  waive  it  ofi",  as  dull,  melancholy, 
or  enthusiastical. 

But  as  he  will  give  you  to  understand  "  he 
is  no  hypocrite,  and,  therefore,  confines  de- 
votion to  his  oloset,"  follow  him  there.  Alafil 


9o  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PABT  IH. 

he  scarce  ever  bends  the  knee  to  Him  that 
sees  in  secret :  or,  if  he  says  his  prayers  as 
regularly  as  he  winds  his  watch,  it  is  much 
in  the  same  spirit ;  for  suppose  he  does  not 
hurry  them  over,  or  cut  them  as  short  as 
possible,  yet  the  careless,  formal  manner  in 
which  he  offers  them  up,  indicates  as  plainly 
as  his  public  conduct,  the  aversion  lurking 
in  his  heart  against  God :  and  yet  he  fan- 
cies he  loves  him:  with  a  sneer  that  indi- 
cates self- applause,  and  a  pharisaic  contempt 
of  others,  *■'  Away  with  all  your  feelings- 
and  raptures,"  says  lie;  "this  is  the  love  of 
God,  that  we  keep  his  commandments." 
But,  alas!  which  of  them  does  he  keep? 
Certainly  not  the  first ;  for  the  Lord  is  not 
the  supreme  object  of  his  hopes  and  fears, 
his  confidence  and  joy ;  nor  yet  the  last ;  for 
discontent  and  wrong  desires  are  still  in- 
dulged in  his  selfish  and  worldly  heart. 
How  unfortunate,  therefore,  is  his  appeal  to 
the  commandments,  by  which  his  secret  en- 
mity to  the  law,  govermnent,  and  nature  of 
God,  is  brought  to  the  clearest  light. 

EIGHTEENTH    ARGUMENT. 

But  as  the  heart-felt  love  of  God  is  sup- 
posed to  bft  downright  enthusiasm  by  some 
moralists,  who,  dashing  in  pieces  the  first 
table  of  the  law  against  the  second,  pretend 
that  all  our  duty  to  God  consists  in  the  love 
of  our   neighbor,   let  us  examine  the  ua- 


PART  III.]  MATTER   OF   FACT.  99 

converted  man's  charity,  and  see  whether  he 
bears  more  love  to  his  fellow-creatures  than 
to  his  Creator. 

Nothing  can  be  more  erroneous  than  his 
notions  of  charity.  He  confounds  it  with  the 
bare  giving  of  alms ;  not  considering  that  it 
is  possible  to  do  this  kind  of  good  from  the 
most  selfish  and  uncharitable  motives. — 
Therefore,  when  the  fear  of  being  accounted 
covetous,  the  desire  of  passing  for  generous, 
the  vanity  of  seeing  his  name  in  a  list  of 
noble  subscribers,  the  shame  of  being  out- 
done by  his  equals,  the  teazing  importunity 
of  an  obstinate  beggar,  the  moving  address 
of  a  solicitor,  whom  he  would  blush  to  deny, 
Or  the  pharisaic  notion  of  making  amends 
for  his  sins,  and  purchasing  heaven  by  his 
alms  —  when  any,  I  say,  of  these  sinister 
motives  sets  him  upon  assisting  industrious 
poverty,  relieving  friendless  old  age,  or 
supporting  infirm  and  mutilated  indigence, 
he  fancies  that  he  gives  an  indubitable  proof 
of  his  charity. 

Sometimes,  too,  he  affixes  to  that  word  the 
idea  of  a  fond  hope  that  every  body  is  going 
to  heaven :  for  if  you  intimate  that  the  rich 
voluptuary  is  not  with  Lazarus,  in  Abra- 
ham's bosom,  and  that  the  foolish  virgins 
are  not  promiscuously  .admitted  to  glory 
with  the  wise,  he  wonders  at  "  your  unchar- 
itableness,"  and  thanks  God  "  he  never  en- 


100  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PART  Efl. 

tertained  such  unchristian  thoughts  of  his 
neighbors." 

He  considers  not  that  charity  is  the  fair 
offspring  of  the  love  of  God,  to  which  he  is 
yet  an  utter  stranger;  and  that  it  consists  in 
a  universal,  disinterested  benevolence  to  all 
mankind,  our  worst  enemies  not  excepted — 
a  benevolence  that  sweetly  evidences  itself 
by  bearing  with  patience  the  evil  which  they 
do  to  us,  and  kindly  doing  them  all  the 
good  we  possibly  can,  both  with  respect  to 
their  soul  and  body,  their  property  and 
reputation. 

K  this  is  a  just  definition  of  charity,  the 
unrenewed  man  has  not  even  the  outside  of 
it.  To  prove  it,  I  might  appeal  to  his  impa- 
tience and  ill-humor,  his  unkind  words  and 
cutting  raileries,  (  for  I  suppose  him  too 
moral  ever  to  slander  or  curse  any  one;)  1 
might  mention  his  supercillious  behavior  to 
some,  who  are  entitled  to  his  affability  as 
men,  countrymen,  and  neighbors ;  I  might 
expatiate  on  his  readiness  to  exculpate,  en- 
rich, or  aggrandize  himself  at  the  expense 
of  others,  whenever  he  can  do  it  without 
exposing  himself. 

But,  waiving  all  these  particulars,  I  ask, 
Whom  does  he  truly  love'^  You  answer, 
"  Doubtless  the  person  to  whom  he  makes 
daily  protestations  of  the  warmest  regard." 
But  how  does  he  prove  this  regard?  Why, 
perhaps,  with  the  most  artlul  insinuations, 


PAET  ni.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  101 

and  clauojerous  attempts  to  rob  her  of  her 
virtue,  rerhaps  lie  has  ah'oady  gained  his 
end.  Unhappy  Magdalen!  How  much 
better  would  it  have  been  for  thee  to  have 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  highwayman  I 
Thou  wouldst  only  have  lost  thy  money,  but 
now  thou  art  despoiled  of  the  honor  of  thy 
sex,  and  the  peace  of  thy  mind:  thou  art 
robbed  at  once  of  virgin  innocence,  a  fair 
reputation,  and  possibly  a  healthy  constitu- 
tion. If  this  is  a  specimen  of  the  uncon- 
verted man's  love,  what  must  he  his  hatred? 
But  I  haply  mistake :  "  He  is  no  libertine ; 
he  has  a  virtuous  wife,  and  amiable  children, 
and  he  loves  them,"  say  you,  "with  the 
tenderest  afiection."  I  reply,  that  these  re- 
lations, being  immortal  spirits,  confined  for 
a  few  years  in  a  tenement  of  clay,  and  con- 
tinually on  the  remove  for  eternity,  his 
laudable  regard  for  their  frail  bodies,  and 
proper  care  of  their  temporal  prosperity,  are 
not  a  sufficient  proof  that  he  loves  them  in 
a  right  manner.  For  even  according  to  wise 
heathens,  our  soul  is  our  better  part,  our 
true  self.*  And  what  tender  concern  does 
the  unrenewed  man  feel  for  the  soul  of  his 
bosom  friend?  Does  he  regard  it  more  than 
the  body  of  his  groom,  or  the  life  of  his 
horse?  Does  he  with  any  degree  of  impor- 
tunity, carry  it  daily  in  the  arms  of  love  and 

*  Ifos  non  corpora  sumus  :  Corpus  quidem  vas  est  aut 
aliquod  animi  receptaculum. — Cic.  Tusc.  Qucest.,  lib.  1. 


102  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PAET  m. 

prayer  to  the  throne  of  grace  for  life  and 
salvation?  Does  he,  by  good  instructions, 
and  a  virtuous  example,  excite  his  children 
to  secure  an  eternal  inheritance;  and  is  he 
at  least  as  desirous  to  see  them  wise  and 
pious;  as  well-bred,  rich,  handsome,  and 
great?  Alas!  I  fear  it  is  just  the  reverse. 
He  is  probably  the  first  to  poison  their  ten- 
der minds  with  some  of  the  dangerous 
maxims  that  vanity  and  ambition  have  in- 
vented; and,  supposing  he  has  a  favorite 
dog,  it  is  well  if  he  is  not  more  anxious  for 
the  preservation  of  that  one  domestic  ani- 
mal, than  for  the  salvation  of  all  their  souls. 
K  these  observations  are  founded  upon 
matter  of  fact,  as  daily  experience  demon- 
strates, 1  appeal  to  common  sense,  and  ask. 
Can  the  natural  man,  with  all  his  fondness, 
be  said  to  have  a  true  love  even  for  his 
nearest  relatives?  And  is  not  the  regard 
that  he  manifests  for  their  bodies  more  like 
the  common  instinct  by  which  doves  cleave 
to  their  mates,  and  swallows  provide  for 
their  young,  than  like  the  generous  aifection 
which  a  rational  creature  ought  to  bear  to 
immortal  spirits^  awfully '  hovering  in  a 
scale  of  probation,  which  is  just  going  to 
turn  for  hell  or  heaven  ? 

NINETEENTH    ARGUMENT. 

Nor  is  it  surprising  that  the  unrenewed 
man  should  be  devoid  of  all  true  love  to  his 


PART  ni.]  MATTER    OF   FACT.  103 

nearest  relations ;  for  he  is  so  completely 
fallen,  that  he  bears  no  true  love  even  to 
himself.  Let  us  overlook  those  who  cut  their 
throats,  shoot,  drown,  or  hang  themselves. 
Let  us  take  no  notice  of  those  who  sacrifice 
a  year's  health  for  a  night's  revel ;  who  in- 
flame their  blood  into  fevers,  or  drive  putre- 
faction into  their  bones,  for  the  momentary 
gratification  of  a  shameful  appetite ;  and  are 
so  hot  in  the  pursuit  of  base  pleasure,  that 
they  leap  after  it  even  into  the  jaws  of  an 
untimely  grave:  let  us,  I  say,  pass  by  those 
innumerable,  unhappy  victims  of  intemper- 
ance  and  debauchery,  who  squander  their 
money  upon  panders  and  harlots,  and  have 
as  little  regard  for  their  health  as  for  their 
fortune  and  reputation ;  and  let  us  consider 
the  case  of  those  good-natured,  decent  per- 
sons,  who  profess  to  have  a  real  value  for 
both. 

Upon  the  principle  laid  down  in  the  last 
Argument,  may  I  not  ask.  What  love  have 
these  for  their  immortal  part,  their  true  self? 
What  do  they  do  for  their  souls  ?  Or,  rather, 
what  do  they  not  leave  undone?  And  who 
can  show  less  concern  for  their  greatest  in- 
terest than  they? 

Alas!  in  spiritual  matters,  the  wisest  of 
them  seem  on  a  level.with  the  most  foolish. 
They  anxiously  secure  their  title  to  a  few 
possessions  in  this  transitoiy  world,  out  of 
which  the  stream  of  time  carries  them  with 


104  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PAUT  m. 

unabated  impetuosity ;  while  they  remain  * 
stupidly  thoughtless  of  their  portion  in  the 
unchangeable  world,  into  which  they  are  just 
going  to  launch ;  they  take  particular  notice 
of  every  trivial  incident  in  life,  every  idle 
report  raised  in  their  neighborhood,  and 
supinely  overlook  the  great  realities  of  death 
and  judgment,  hell  and  heaven. 

You  see  them  perpetually  contriving  how 
to  preserve,  indulge,  and  adorn  their  dying 
bodies,  and  daily  neglecting  the  safety,  wel- 
fare, and  ornament  of  their  immortal  souls. 
So  great  is  theii*  folly,  that  earthly  •  toys 
make  them  slight  heavenly  thrones!  So 
willful  their  self-deception,  that  a  point  of 
timef  hides  from  them  a  boundless  eternity  I 

•  Time  flies,  death  urges,  knells  call,  heaven  invites. 
Hell  threatens ;  all  exert ;  in  effort  all : 
More  than  creation  labors !  labors  more ! 
And  is  there  in  creation,  what,  amidst 
This  tumult  universal,  wing'd  dispatch, 
And  ardent  energy,  supinely  yawns  ? 
Man  sleeps — and  man  alone  ;  and  man,  whose  fate — 
Fate  irreversible,  entire,  extreme. 
Endless,  hair-hung,  breeze-shaken — o'er  the  gulf 
A  moment  trembles — drops  !  and  man,  for  whom 
All  else  is  in  alarm — man,  the  sole  cause 
Of  this  surrounding  storm  ! — and  yet  he  sleeps. 
As  the  storm  rocked  to  rest. — Young. 

t  And  is  it  in  the  flight  of  threescore  years 
To  push  eternity  from  human  thought. 
Ana  bury  souls  immortal  in  the  dust  ? 
A  soul  immortal  spending  all  her  fires. 
Wasting  her  strength  in  strenuous  idleness ; 
Thrown  into  tummt,  raptured,  or  alarm'd, 


PART  III.]  MATTER   OF   FACT.  105 

So  perverted  is  their  moral  taste,  that  they 
nauseate  the  word  of  tmth,  the  precions 
food  of  souls,  and  greedily  run  upon  the 
tempter's  hook,  if  it  is  but  made  of  solid 
gold,  or  gilt  over  with  the  specious  appear- 
ance of  honor,  or  only  baited  with  the  pros- 
pect of  a  favorite  diversion.  And  while,  by 
uneasy,  Iretful  tempers,  they  too  often  im- 
pair their  bodily  health,  by  exorbitant  affec- 
tions, and  pungent  cares,  they  frequently 
break  their  hearts,  or  pierce  themselves 
through  with  many  sorrows. 

Does  such  a  conduct  deserve  the  name  of 
well-ordered,  self-love,  or  preposterous  self- 
hatred?  O  man,  sinful  man,  how  totally 
art  thou  depraved,  if  thou  art  not  only  thine 
own  most  dangerous  enemy,  but  often  thy 
most  cruel  tormentor ! 

TWENTIETH    ARGUMENT. 

This  depravity  is  productive  of  the  most 
detestable  brood.  When  it  has  suppressed 
the  love  of  God,  perverted  the  love  of  our 
neighbor,  and  vitiated  self-love,  it  soon  gives 
birth  to  a  variety  of  execrable  tempers  and 
dire  affections,  whicli  should  have  no  place 
but  in  the  breast  of  fiends,  no  outbreaking 
but  in  the  chambers  of  liell. 

If  you  ask  their  name,  I  answer,  Pride, 

At  aught  this  scene  can  threaten  or  indulge, 

Resembles  ocean  into  tempest  wrought 

To  waft  a  feather  or  to  drown  a  fly. — Young. 


106  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PART  Hi. 

that  odious  vice,  which  feeds  on  the  praises 
it  slyly  procures,  lives  by  the  applause  it 
has  meanly  courted,  and  is  equally  stabbed 
by  the  reproof  of  a  friend,  and  the  sneer  of 
a  foe.  The  spirit  of  Independence,  which 
cannot  bear  control,  is  galled  by  the  easiest 
yoke,  gnaws  the  slender  cords  of  just  au- 
thority, as  if  they  were  the  heavy  chains  of 
tyrannical  power;    nor  ever  ceases  strug- 

fling  till  they  break,  and  he  can  say :  "  Now 
am  my  own  master."  Ambition  and  Van- 
ity, which,  like  Proteus,  take  a  thousand 
shapes,  and  wind  a  thousand  ways,  to  climb 
up  the  high  seat  of  power,  shine  on  the  tot- 
tering stage  of  honor,  wear  the  golden  badge 
of  fortune,  glitter  in  the  gaudy  pomp  of 
dress,  and  draw,  by  distinguishing  appear- 
ances, the  admiration  of  a  gaping  multitude. 
Sloth,  which  unnerves  the  soul,  enfeebles 
the  body,  and  makes  the  whole  man  deaf  to 
the  calls  of  duty,  loth  to  set  about  his  busi- 
ness— even  when  want,  fear,  or  shame  drives 
him  to  it — ready  to  postpone  or  omit  it  upon 
any  pretence,  and  willing  to  give  up  even 
the  interests  of  societ}^,  virtue,  and  religion, 
so  he  may  saunter  undisturbed,  doze  the 
time  away  in  stupid  inactivity,  or  enjoy 
himself  in  that  dastardly  indolence,  which 
passes  in  the  world  for  quietness  and  good- 
nature. Envy,  that  looks  with  an  evil  eye 
at  the  good  things  our  competitors  enjoy, 
takes  a  secret  pleasure  in  their  misfortunes. 


PABT  ni.]  MATTER   OF  FACT.  107 

under  vanous  pretexts  exposes  their  faults, 
slyly  tries  to  add  to  our  reputation  what  it 
detracts  from  theii-s,  and  stings  our  heart 
when  they  eclipse  us  by  their  greater  suc- 
cess or  superior  excellencies.  Covetousness, 
which  is  always  dissatisfied  with  its  por- 
tion, watches  it  with  tormenting  fears,  in- 
creases it  by  every  sordid  means,  and  turn- 
ing its  own  executioner,  justly  pines  for 
want  over  the  treasure  it  madly  saves  for  a 
prodigal  heir.  Impatience,  which  frets  at 
every  thing,  finds  fault  with  every  person, 
and  madly  tears  herself  under  the  distress- 
ing sense  of  a  present  evil,  or  the  anxious 
expectation  of  an  absent  good.  Wrath, 
which  distorts  our  faces,  racks  our  breasts, 
alarms  our  households,  threatens,  curses, 
stamps,  and  storms,  even  upon  imaginary 
or  trifling  provocations.  Jealousy,  that 
through  a  fatal  skill  in  diabolical  optics, 
sees  contempt  in  all  the  words  of  a  favorite 
friend,  discovers  infidelity  in  all  his  actions, 
lives  upon  the  wicked  suspicions  it  begets, 
and  turns  the  sweets  of  the  mildest  passion 
into  wormwood  and  gall.  Idolatrous  love, 
which  preys  upon  the  spirits,  consumes  the 
flesh,  tears  the  throbbing  heart,  and  when 
it  is  disappointed,  frequently  forces  its 
wretched  slaves  to  lay  violent  hands  upon 
themselves.  Hatred  of  our  fellow-creatures, 
which  keeps  us  void  of  tender  benevolence, 
a  cJiief  ingredient  in  the  bliss  of  angels,  and 


108  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PAKT  III. 

fills  US  with  some  of  the  most  unhappy  sen- 
sations belonging  to  accursed  spirits.  Mal- 
ice, which  takes  an  unnatural,  hellish  pleas- 
ure, in  teasing  beasts,  and  hurting  men,  in 
their  persons,  properties,  or  reputation.  And 
the  offspring  of  malice.  Revenge,*  who  al- 
ways thirsts  after  mischief  or  blood;  and 
shares  the  only  delight  of  devils,  when  he 
can  repay  a  real  or  fancied  injury  sevenfold. 
Hypocrisy,  who  borrows  the  cloak  of  reli- 
gion ;  bids  her  flexible  muscles  imitate  vital 
piety ;  attends  at  the  sacred  altars,  to  make 
a  show  of  her  fictitious  devotion ;  there 
raises  her  affected  zeal  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  the  spectators;  calls  upon  God 
to  get  the  praise  of  man ;  and  lifts  up  adul- 
terous eyes  and  thievish  hands  to  heaven,  to 
procure  herself  the  good  things  of  the  earth. 
And  Hypocrisy's  sister,  narrow-hearted  Big- 
otry, who*  pushes  from  her  Civility  and 
Good-nature,  stops  her  ears  against  argu- 
ments and  entreaties ;  calls  Huguenots,  in- 
fidels, Papists,  or  heretics,  all  who  do  not 


*  Man  hard  of  heart  to  man !  of  horrid  things 
Most  horrid !     Midst  stupendous,  highly  strange  I 
Yet  oft  his  courtesies  are  smoother  wrongs  ; 
Pride  brandishes  the  favors  he  confers, 
And  contumelious  his  humanity: 
What  then  his  vengeance !     Hear  it  not,  ye  stars" 
And  thou,  pale  moon !  turn  paler  at  the  sound, 

Man  is  to  man  the  sorest,  surest  ill 

Heaven's  Sovereign  saves  all  beings  but  himself, 
That  hideous  sight,  a  naked  human  heart. — Young. 


PART  m.]  MATTER   OF   FACT.  109 

directly  subscribe  to  her  absurd  or  impious 
creeds;  dogs  them  with  a  malignant  eye; 
throws  stones  or  dirt  at  them  about  an 
empty  ceremony,  or  an  indifferent  opinion ; 
and  at  last,  if  she  can,  sets  churches  or 
kingdoms  on  fire,  about  a  turban,  a  surplice, 
or  a  cowl.  Perfidiousness,  who  puts  on  the 
looks  of  true  benevolence,  speaks  the  lan- 
guage of  the  warmest  affection ;  with  solemn 
protestations  invites  men  to  depend  on  her 
sincerity,  while  she  lays  a  deep  plot  for 
their  sudden  destruction  ;  and,  with  repeat- 
ed oaths,  beseeches  Heaven  to  be  witness  of 
her  artless  innocence,  while  she  moves  the 
centre  of  hell  to  accomplish  her  dire  de- 
signs. The  fatal  hour  is  come — her  strata- 
gem has  succeeded — and  she  now  Idsses 
and  betrays,  drinks  health  and  poisons — ^of- 
fers  a  friendly  embrace,  and  gives  a  deadly 
stab.  Despair,  who  scorns  to  be  beholden 
to  Mercy,  gives  the  lie  to  all  the  declara- 
tions issued  from  the  tlirone  of  grace,  obsti- 
nately turns  his  wild  eyes  from  the  great 
expiatoiy  sacrifice ;  and  at  last,  impatient 
to  drink  the  cup  of  trembling,  wildly  looks 
for  some  weapon  to  destroy  himself.  De- 
traction, begotten  by  the  shocking  mixture 
of  two  or  more  of  these  infernal  passions, 
raised  to  the  highest  degree  of  extravagance 
— disti'action,  that  wrings  her  hands,  tears 
her  disheveled  hair,  fixes  her  ghastly  eyes, 
turns  her  swimming  brains,  quenches  the 


110  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PART  IH. 

last  spark  of  reason,  and,  like  a  fierce  tiger, 
must  at  last  be  chained  by  the  hand  of  cau- 
tion, and  confined  with  iron  bars  in  her 
dreary  dwelling. 

And  to  close  the  dismal  train,  Self-murder, 
who  always  points  wretched  mortals  to  ponds 
and  rivers,  or  presents  them  with  cords,  raz- 
ors, pistols,  daggers,  and  poison,  and  perpet- 
ually urges  them  to  the  choice  of  one  of  them, 
"  You  are  guilty,  miserable  creatures,"  whis- 
pers he :  ^'  the  sun  of  prosperity  is  forever 
set,  the  deepest  night  of  distress  is  come 
upon  you ;  you  are  in  a  hell  of  woe ;  the 
hell  prepared  for  Satan  cannot  be  worse  than 
that  which  you  feel,  but  it  may  be  more  tol- 
erable; take  this,  and  boldly  force  your 
passage  out  of  the  cursed  state  in  which  you 
groan."  He  persuades,  and  his  desperate 
victims,  tired  of  the  company  of  their  fel- 
low-mortals, fly  for  reftige  to  that  of  devils  ! 
they  shut  their  eyes,  and,  horrible  to  say! 
but  how  much  more  hori'ible  to  do !  delib- 
erately venture  from  one  hell  into  another, 
to  seek  ease ;  or,  to  speak  with  more  truth, 
leap,  with  all  the  miseries  of  a  known  hell, 
into  all  the  horrors  of  one  which  is  un- 
known. 

And  are  your  hearts,  O  ye  sons  of  men, 
the  favorite  seats  of  this  infernal  crew! 
Then  shame  on  the  wretch  that  made  the 
first  panegyric  on  the  dignity  of  human  na- 


PABT  m.]  MATTEK    OF   FACT.  Ill 

ture !     He  proved  my  point :  he  began  in 
pride,  and  ended  in  distraction. 

Detestable  as  these  vices  and  tempers 
are,  where  is  the  natural  man  that  is  always 
free  from  them  ?  Where  is  even  the  chHd 
ten  years  old,  who  never  felt  most  of  these 
vipers,  upon  some  occasion  or  other,  shoot- 
ing their  venom  tln-ough  his  lips,  darting 
their  balefiil  inflence  tin-ough  his  eyes,  or  at 
least  stirring  and  hissing  in  his  disturbed 
breast  ?  If  any  one  never  felt  them,  he  may 
be  pronounced  more  than  mortal ;  but  if 
he  has,  his  own  experience  furnishes  him 
with  a  sensible  demonstration,  that  he  is  a 
fallen  spifit,  infected  with  the  poison  that 
rages  in  the  devil  himself. 

TWENTY-FIKST  ARGUMENT. 

Bad  roots,  which  vigorously  shoot  in  the 
spring,  will  naturally  produce  their  danger- 
ous Iruit  in  summer.  We  may,  therefore. 
go  one  step  farther,  and  ask,  where  is  the 
man  thirty  yeai's  old,  whose  depravity  has 
not  broken  out  into  the  greatest  variety  of 
sinfal  acts?  Among  the  persons  of  that 
age,  who  never  were  esteemed  worse  than 
their  neighbors,  shall  we  find  a  forehead 
that  never  betrayed  daring  insolence?  A 
cheek,  that  never  indicated  concealed  guilt 
by  an  involuntary  blush,  or  unnatural  pale- 
ness? A  neck,  that  never  was  stretched 
out  in  pride  and  vain  confidence  ?     An  eye> 


112  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PART   IH. 

that  never  cast,  a  disdainful,  malignant,  or 
wanton  look  ?  An  ear,  that  an  evil  curios- 
ity never  opened  to  frothy,  loose,  or  detam- 
ing  intercourse  ?  A  tongue,  that  never  was 
tainted  with  unedifying,  false,  indecent,  or 
uncharitable  language  ?  A  palate,  that  nev- 
er became  the  seat  of  luxurious  indulgence? 
A  throat  that  never  was  the  channel  of  ex- 
cess ?  A  stomach,  that  never  felt  the  op- 
pressive load  of  abused  mercies?  Hands, 
that  never  plucked  or  touched  the  forbidden 
fruit  of  pleasing  sin  ?  Feet,  that  never  once 
moved  in  the  broad,  downward  road  of  ini- 
quity? And  a  bosom,  that  never  heaved 
under  the  dreadful  workings  of  stoe  exorb- 
itant passion  ?  Where,  in  short,  is  there  a 
face,  ever  so  disagreeable,  that  never  was  the 
object  of  self- worship  in  a  glass?  And 
where  a  body,  however  deformed,  that  never 
was  set  up  as  a  favorite  idol  by  the  fallen 
spirit  that  inhabits  it? 

If  iniquity  thus  works  by  all  the  powers, 
and  breaks  out  through  all  the  parts  of  the 
human  body,  we  may  conclude,  by  woeftil 
experience,  not  only  that  the  plague  of  sin 
is  begun,  but  that  it  rages  with  universal 
ftiry ;  and  to  use  again  the  evangelical 
prophet's  words,  that  from  the  sole  of  the 
foot,  even  to  the  head  of  the  natural  man, 
there  is  no  spiritual  soundness  in  him,  but 
wounds,  and  bruises,  and  putrefying  sores. 


PAKTm.  1  MATTER   OB'   FACT.  113 


TWENTY-SECOND    ARGUMENT. 

What  can  be  said  of  each  individual,  may 
with  the  same  propriety,  be  affirmed  of  all 
the  different  nations  of  the  earth.  Let  an 
impartial  judge  take  four  unconverted  men 
or  children,  from  the  four  parts  of  the  world. 
Let  him  examine  their  actions,  and  trace 
them  back  to  their  spring ;  and,  if  he  makes 
some  allowance  for  the  accidental  difference 
of  their  climate,  constitution,  taste  and  ed- 
ucation, he  will  soon  find  their  disposition 
as  equally  earthly,  sensual,  and  devilish,  as 
if  they  had  all  been  cast  in  the  same  mold. 
Yes,  as  oak-trees  are  oaks  all  the  world 
over,  though  by  particular  circumstances 
some  grow  tallei-  and  harder,  and  some  more 
knotted  and  crooked  than  others,  so  all  un- 
regenerate  men  resemble  one  another ;  for 
all  are  proud,  self-willed,  impenitent,  and 
lovers  of  pleasure  more  than  lovers  of  God. 

Do  not  sloth,  gluttony,  drunkenness,  and 
uncleanness ;  cheating,  defrauding,  stealing, 
and  oppression;  lying,  perjury,  treachery, 
and  cruelty,  stalk  openly  or  lurk  secretly 
every- where?  Are  not  all  these  vices  pre- 
dominant among  black  and  white  people, 
among  savages  and  civilized  nations,  among 
Turks  and  Jews,  heathens  and  Christians, 
whether  they  live  on  the  banks  of  the  Gan- 
ges or  the  Thames,  the  Mississippi  or  the 


114  AN    xYPPEAL    TO  [pART  tlL 

Seine?  whether  they  starve  in  the  snows  of 
Lapland,  or  burn  in  the  sands  of  Guinea? 

O  sin!  thou  fatal. pest:  thou  soul-destroy- 
ing plague !  would  to  God  thy  fixed  abode 
were  only  in  the  Levant!  and  that  lilc^  th« 
external  pestilence,  thou  wert  chiefiy  con- 
fined to  the  Turkish  dominions !  But  alaa  I 
the  gross  immorality  and  profaneness — 'the 
various  crimes  and  villanies — the  desperate 
impiety  and  wild  blasphemy,  under  which 
every  kingdom  and  city  has  groaned,  and 
still  continues  to  do  night  and  day,  over  the 
face  of  the  whole  earth,  are  black  spots  so 
similar,  and  symptoms  so  equally  teri'ible, 
that  we  are  obliged  to  confess  they  must 
have  a  common  internal  principle  —  which 
can  be  no  other  than  a  bad  l^abit  of  soul — a 
fallen,  corrupted  nature.  Yes,  the  univer- 
sality and  equality  of  the  effects  show  to  an 
unprejudiced  mind  that  tlie  cause  is  univer- 
sal, and  equally  inlerwoven  with  the  nature 
which  is  common  to  all  nations,  and  remains 
the  same  in  all  countries  and  ages. 

FIVE    OBJECTIONS. 

I.  If  the  self-righteous  moralist  answers 
that  "sin  and  wickedness  are  not  so  univer- 
sal as  this  argument  supposes,"  I  reply  that 
the  more  we  are  acquainted  with  ourselves, 
■^tl  the  hisfoiy  of  the  dead,  and  secret 
transactions  of  tlie  living,  the  more  we  are 
convinced,  that  if  all  are  not  guiij    i/f  tut- 


PART  III.]  MAITEE    OF    FACT.  Il5 

ward  enormities,  all  are  deeply  tainted  with 
spiritual  wickedness. 

Even  those  excellent  persons  who,  like 
Jeremiah,  have  been  in  part  sanctified  be- 
fore they  came  forth  out  of  the  womb,  can, 
from  sad  experience,  confess  with  him  that 
the  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things,  and 
Bay,  with  David,  my  heart  showeth  me  the 
wickedness  of  the  ungodly. 

Thousands,  indeed,  boast  of  the  goodness 
of  their  hearts ;  they  flatter  themselves  that 
to  be  righteous,  it  is  enough  to  avoid  gross 
acts  of  intemperance  and  injustice ;  with  the 
Pharisees,  they  shut  their  eyes  against  the 
destructive  nature  of  the  love  of  the  world^ 
the  thirst  of  praise,  the  fear  of  men,  the 
love  of  ease,  sloth,  sensuality,  indevotion, 
self-righteousness,  discontent,  impatience, 
selfishness,  carnal  security,  unbelief,  hard- 
ness of  heart,  and  a  thousand  other  spiritual 
evils.  Full  of  self-ignorance,  like  Peter, 
they  imagine  there  is  no  combustible  mat- 
ter of  wickedness  in  their  breasts,  because 
they  are  not  actually  fired  by  the  spark  of  a 
suitable  temptation.  And  when  they  hear 
what  their  corrupt  nature  may  one  day 
prompt  them  to  do,  they  cry  out  with  Ha- 
zael.  Am  I  a  dog,  that  I  should  do  this 
thing?  Nevertheless,  by  and  by  they  do  it, 
if  not  outwardly,  as  he  did,  at  least  in  their 
vain  thoughts  by  day,  or  wicked,  lewd  im- 
aginations by  night.     So  true  is  the  wise 


116  AN   APPEAL   TO  [piRT  lit* 

man's  saying,  He  that  trusteth  his  own  heart 
is  a  fool. 

II.  "  If  histories  give  us  frequent  accounts 
of  the  notorious  wickedness  of  mankind — ■■ 
say  the  advocates  of  human  excellence — it 
is  because  private  virtue  is  not  the  subject 
of  history ;  and  to  judge  of  the  moral  rec^ 
titude  of  the  world  by  the  corruption  of 
courts,  is  as  absurd  as  to  estimate  the  health 
of  a  people  from  an  infirmary." 

And  is  private  vice  any  more  the  subject 
of  history  than  private  virtue?  If  it  were, 
what  folios  would  contain  the  fulsome  and 
black  accounts  of  all  the  lies  and  scandal—^ 
the  secret  grudges  and  open  quarrels  —  the 
filthy  talking  and  malicious  jesting — the 
unkind  or  unjust  behavior — the  gross  or  re^ 
fined  intemperance,  which  deluge  both  town 
and  country? 

Suppose  the  annals  of  any  one  numerous 
family  were  published,  liow  many  volumes 
might  be  filled  with  the  detail  of  the  undue 
fondness,  or  forbidden  coldness — the  vari- 
ance, animosity,  and  strife,  which  break  out 
between  husbands  and  wives,  parents  and 
children,  brotliei-s  and  sisters,  masters  and 
domestics,  upper  and  lower  servants,  &c.? 
What  ridiculous,  impertinent  scenes  would 
be  opened  to  public  view !  What  fretfulness, 
dissimulation,  envy,  jealousy,  talebearing, 
deceit !  What  concealed  suspicions,  aggra- 
vated charges,  false  accusations,  underhand 


PART  m.]  MATTER   OF    FACT.  117 

dealings,  imaginaiy  provocations,  glaring 
partiality,  insolent  behavior,  loud  passions  ! 

Was  even  the  best  moralist  to  write  the 
memoirs  of  his  own  heart,  and  give  the 
public  a  minute  account  of  all  his  imperti- 
nent thoughts  and  wild  imaginations,  how 
many  paragraphs  would  make  him  blush ! 
How  many  pages,  by  presenting  the  aston- 
ished reader  with  a  blank  or  a  blot,  would 
demonstrate  the  tnith  of  St.  Paul's  asser- 
tion. They  are  all  gone  out  of  the  way,  there 
is  none  that  doeth  good,  none  but  spoils  his 
best  works  by  a  mixture  of  essential  evil ! 
Far,  then,  from  finding*  ''those  vastly  su- 
perior numbers,  w^ho  in  safe  o])scurity  are 
virtuously  and  innocently  employed,^'  we 
may  €very-w4iere  see  tlie  truth  of  the  con- 
fession which  our  objectors  make  in  the 
church,  "  There  is  no  liealth  in  us." 

I  say  eveiy-where ;  for  is  cabal  confined 
to  court,  any  more  than  lewdness  to  the 
army,  and  profaneness  to  tlie  navy?  Does 
not  the  same  spirit  of  sell-interest  and  in- 
trigue which  iniiuences  the  choice  of  minis- 
ters of  state,  preside  also  at  the  election  of 
members  of  Parliament,  mayors  of  corporate 
towns,  burgesses  of  boroughs,  and  petty  ofii- 
cers  in  a  country  parish?  We  may,  then — - 
notwithstanding  the  unlortunate  comparison 
on  which  this  objectioi  is  founded  —  con- 

*  See  the  note  on  page  47. 


118  AN   APPESkL   TO  [part  IH. 

elude,  without  absurdity,  that,  as  all  men, 
sooner  or  later,  by  pain,  sickness,  and  death, 
evidence  their  natural  weakness  and  mortal- 
ity— whether  they  live  in  infirmaries,  pal- 
aces, or  cottages —so  all  men,  sooner  or 
later,  by  their  thoughts,  words,  and  actions, 
demonstrate  their  natural  corruption,whether 
they  crowd  the  jail  yard,  the  drawing-room, 
or  the  obscure  green  of  a  country  village. 

Ill,  The  same  objectors  will  probably  re- 
ply: "K  corruption  is  univei-sal,  it  can  not 
be  said  to  be  equal ;  for  numbers  lead  a  very 
harmless,  and  not  a  few  a  very  useful  life." 

To  this  I  answer,  that  all  have  naturally 
an  evil  heart  of  unbelief,  forgetful  of,  and 
departing  from  the  living  God.  In  this 
respect,  there  is  no  difference  ;  all  the  world 
is  guilty  before  God.  But,  thanks  be  to  the 
Father  of  mercies!  all  do  not  remain  so. 
Many  cherish  the  seed  of  supernatural  grace, 
which  we  have  from  the  Kedeemer;  they 
bow  to  his  scepter,  become  new  creatures, 
depart  from  iniquity,  and  are  zealous  of 
good  works.  And  the  same  gracious  pow- 
er which  has  renewed  them  is  at  work  upon 
thousands  more,  hourly  restraining  them 
from  much  evil,  and  daily  exciting  them  to 
many  useful  actions. 

With  respect  to  the  harmlessness,  for 
which  some  unrenewed  persons  are  remark- 
able, it  can  not  spring  from  a  better  nature 
than  that  of  their  fellow-mortals;  for  the 


PART  III.]  MATIER    OF    FACT.  119 

nature  of  all  men,  like  that  of  all  wolves,  is 
the  same  throughout  the  whole  species.  It 
must  then  be  owing  lo  the  restrain!^  grace 
of  God,  or  to  a  happier  constitution,  a 
sti'ider  education,  a  deeper  sense  of  decency, 
or  a  greater  regard  for  their  character ;  per- 
haps only  to  trie  fear  of  consequences,  and 
to  the  want  of  natural  boldness,  or  of  a 
suitable  temptation  and  fair  opportunity 
to  sin.  Nor  are  there  few  who  pass  for 
temperate,  merely  because  the  diabolical 
pride,  lurking  in  their  hearts,  scorns  to  stoop 
so  low  as  to  indulge  their  beastly  appetites: 
while  others  have  the  undeserved  reputation 
of  being  good-natured,  because  they  find 
more  delight  in  quietly  gratifying  their 
sheepish  indolence  or  brutal  desires,  than  in 
yielding  to  the  uneasy,  boisteraus  tempers, 
which  they  have  in  common  with  devils. 

As  to  the  virtues  by  which  some  of  the 
unconverted  distinguish  themselves  from 
others,  they  either  spring  from  God's  pre- 
venting grace  or  are  only  vices  in  disguise. 
The  love  of  praise,  the  desire  of  honor,  and 
the  thirst  of  gold,  excite  thousands  to  laud- 
able designs  and  useful  actions.  "Wicked 
men,  set  on  work  by  these  powerftil  springs, 
do  lying  wonders  in  the  moral  world,  as  the 
magicians  did  in  the  land  of  Egypt.  They 
counterfeit  divine  grace,  and  for  a  time  seem 
even  to  outdo  believers  themselves.  Hence 
it  is,  that  we  frequently  see  the  indolent  in- 


120  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PAKT   III. 

dustrioiis,  the  coward  brave,  the  covetous 
charitaj|le,  the  Pharisee  religious,  the  Mag- 
dalen modest,  and  the  dastardly  slave  of  his 
lusts  a  bold  asserter  of  public  liberty.  But 
the  Searcher  of  heai-ts  is  not  deceived  by 
fair  appearances :  he  judges  of  their  actions 
according  to  the  motives  whence  they  springy 
and  the  ends  for  which  they  are  performed. 
You  are,  says  he  to  all  these  seemingly- vir- 
tuous sinners,  like  whited  sepulchers,  which 
indeed  appear  beautiful  outwardly,  but 
within  are  full  of  dead  men's  bones  and  of 
all  uncleanness. 

Were  I  to  describe  these  saints  of  the  world 
by  a  comparison,  I  would  say  that  some  of 
them  resemble  persons  who  artfully  conceal 
their  ulcers,  under  the  most  agreeable  ap- 
pearance of  cleanliness  and  health.  Many 
that  admire  their  faces  and  looks,  little  sus- 
pect what  a  putrid,  virulent  fluid  runs  out 
of  their  secret  sores.  Others  of  them,  whose 
hypocrisy  is  not  of  so  gross  a  kind,  are  like 
persons  infected  with  a  mortal  disease,  who, 
though  the  mass  of  their  blood  is  tainted, 
and  some  noble  part  attacked,  still  walk 
about,  do  business,  and  look  as  fresh -colored 
as  if  they  were  the  picture  of  health.  Ye 
sons  of  ^sculapius,  who,  without  feeling 
their  pulse,  and  carefully  weighing  every 
symptom,  pionounce  them  very  well  upon 
their  look  alone,  do  ye  not  blunder  in  physic, 
just  as  my  objectors  do  in  divinity? 


PART  III.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  121 

lY.  But  still  they  urge,  that  "  it  is  wroDg 
to  father  our  sinfulness  upon  a  pretended 
natural  depravity,  when  it  may  be  entirely 
owing  to  the  force  of  ill  example,  the  influ- 
ence of  a  bad  education,  or  the  strong  fer- 
ments of  youthful  blood." 

All  these,  I  reply,  like  rich  soil  and  rank 
manure,  cause  original  corruption  to  shoot 
the  higher,  but  do  not  form  its  pernicious 
seeds.  That  these  seeds  lurk  within  the  heart, 
before  they  are  forced  up  by  the  heat  of 
temptation,  appeai-s  indubitable,  if  we  con- 
sider, 1.  That  all  children,  on  particular  occa- 
eions,  manifest  some  early  inclinations  to 
those  sins,  which  the  feebleness  of  their  bod- 
ily organs,  and  the  want  of  proper  ferments 
in  their  blood,  do  not  permit  them  to  com- 
mit: 2.  That  infants  betray  envy,  ill-humor, 
impatience,  selfishness,  anger,  and  obsti- 
nacy, even  before  they  can  take  particular 
notice  of  ill  examples,  and  understand  bad 
counsels:  and  3.  That  though  uncleanness, 
fornication,  and  adultery,  on  account  of  the 
shame  and  danger  attending  them,  are 
committed  with  so  much  secrecy,  that  the 
examples  of  them  are  seldom,  if  ever  given 
in  public,  they  are  firevertheless  some  of  the 
crimes  which  are  most  universally  or  eager- 
ly committed. 

Besides,  if  we  were  not  more  inclined  to 
vice  than  virtue,  good  examples  would  be 
as  common,  and  have  as  much  force,  as  bad 


122  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PART   IB 

ones.  Tlierofore,  the  generality  of  bad  ex- 
amples can  not  arise  but  from  the  general 
sinfulness  of  man ;  and  to  account  for  this 
general  sinfulness  hy  the  generality  of  bad 
examples,  is  begging  the  question,  and  not 
proving  the  point. 

Add  to  this,  that  as  weeds,  since  the  curse, 
grow  even  in  fields  sown  wdth  the  best 
wheat,  so  vice,  since  the  fall,  grows  in  the 
midst  of  the  best  examples,  and  the  most 
excellent,  education :  witness  the  barbarous 
crimes  committed  by  pious  Jacob's  children, 
and  penitent  Adam's  eldest  son. 

Y.  ''But  if  Cain  sinned,"  say  our  object- 
ors, "and  all  mankind  sin  also,  it  is  no 
more  than  Adam  himself  once  did  by  his 
own  free  choice,  though  he  was  created  as 
exempt  from  original  depravity  as  an  angel. 
What  need  is  there  then  to  suppose  that  he 
communicated  to  his  posterity  an  inbred 
proneness  to  sin  ? " 

To  this  I  reply:  it  is  not  one  accident  or 
single  event,  but  a  continual  repetition  of 
the  same  event,  that  proves  a  proneness.  If 
a  man,  who  is  perfectly  in  his  senses,  by 
some  unforeseen  accident  falls  into  a  fit  of 
madness,  we  may  accoujit  for  his  misfortune 
from  that  accident ;  and  no  certain  judgment 
can  be  formed  of  the  bodily  habit  of  his 
family.  But  if  all  his  children,  through  a 
hundred  generations,  are  not  only  Eubject  to 
the  same   n^  ad  f^ts.  but  also  die  in  conse- 


PART  m.]  MATTER   OF    FACT,  123 

quence  of  them,  in  all  sorts  of  climates,  and 
under  all  sorts  of  physicians,  common  sense 
will  not  allow  us  to  doubt,  that  it  is  now  a 
family  disorder,  incurable  by  human  art. 
The  man  is  Adam,  the  family  mankind,  and 
the  madness  sin.  Reader,  you  are  desired 
to  make  the  application. 

TWENTY-THIRD    ARGUMENT. 

"But  all  are  not  employed  in  sin  and 
wickednesp,  for  many  go  through  a  constant 
round  of  innocent  diversions ;  and  these,  at 
least,  must  be  innocent  and  happy."  Let  us 
then  consider  the  amusements  of  mankind: 
or,  rather,  without  stopping  to  look  at  the 
wise  dance  of  the  Israelites  round  the  golden 
calf,  and  the  modest,  sober,  and  humane 
diversions  of  the  heathens,  in  the  festivals 
of  their  lewd,  drunken,  and  bloody  gods,  let 
us  see  how  far  our  own  pleasures  demon 
strate  the  innocence  and  happiness  of  man- 
kind. 

How  excessively  foolish  are  the  plays  of 
children !  How  full  of  mischief  and  cruelty 
the  sports  of  boys !  How  vain,  foppish,  and 
frothy  the  joys  of  young  people !  And  how 
much  below  the  dignity  of  upright,  pure 
creatures,  the  snares  that  persons  of  different 
sexes  perpetually  lay  for  each  other !  When 
they  are  together,  is  not  this  their  favorite 
amusement,  till  they  are  deservedly  caught 


124  AN   APPEAL  TO  [PART  IH. 

in  the  net  which  they  imprudently  spread  ? 
But  see  them  asunder. 

Here,  a  circle  of  idle  women,  supping  a 
decoction  of  Indian  herbs,  talk  or  laugh  all 
together,  like  so  many  chirping  birds  or 
chattering  monkeys,  and,  scandal  excepted, 
every  way  to  as  good  purpose ;  and  there,  a 
club  of  grave  men  blow,  by  the  hour,  clouds 
of  stinking  smoke  out  of  their  mouth,  or 
wash  it  down  their  throat  with  repeated 
draughts  of  intoxicating  liquors .  The  strong 
fumes  have  already  reached  their  heads ;  and 
while  some  stagger  home,  others  triumph- 
antly keep  the  held  of  excess;  though  one 
is  already  stamped  with  the  heaviness  of  the 
ox,  another  worked  up  to  the  fierceness  and 
roar  of  the  lion,  and  a  third  brought  down 
to  the  filthiness  of  the  vomiting  dog. 

Leave  them  at  their  manly  sport  to  follow 
those  musical  sounds,  mixed  with  a  noise  of 
stamping,  and  you  will  find  others  profusely 
perspiring,  and  violently  fatiguing  them- 
selves, in  skipping  up  and  down  a  room  for 
a  whole  night,  and  ridiculously  turning  their 
backs  and  faces  to  each  other  a  hundred 
different  ways.  Would  not  a  man  qf  sense 
prefer  running  ten  miles  upon  a  useful  er- 
rand, to  this  useless  manner  of  losing  his 
rest,  heating  his  blood,  exhausting  his  spir- 
its, unfitting  himself  for  the  duties  of  the 
following  day,  and  laying  the  foundation  of 
a  putrid  fever  or  a  consumption,  by  breath- 


PAET  in.]     MATTER  OF  FACT.  125 

ing  the  midnight  air  coriTipted  by  clouds  of 
dust,  by  the  unwholesome  fames  of  candles, 
and  by  the  more  pernicious  steam  that  issues 
from  the  bodies  of  many  persons,  who  use 
a  strong  exercise  in  a  confined  place? 

In  the  next  room,  indeed,  they  are  more 
quiet;  but  are  they  more  rationally  em- 
ployed? Why  do  they  so  earnestly  rattle 
those  ivory  cubes,  and  so  anxiously  study 
those  packs  of  loose  spotted  leaves  ?  Is  hap- 
piness graven  upon  the  one,  or  stamped  up- 
on the  other?  Answer,  ye  gamesters,  who 
curse  your  stars  as  ye  go  home,  with  an 
empty  purse  and  a  heart  foil  of  rage. 

"  We  hope  there  is  no  harm  in  taking  an 
innocent  game  at  cards,"  reply  a  ridiculous 
party  of  superannuated  ladies ;  "  gain  is  not 
our  aim,  we  only  play  to  kill  time."  You 
are  not,  then,  so  well  employed  as  the  fool- 
ish heathen  emperor,  who  amused  himself 
in  killing  troublesome  flies  and  wearisome 
time  together.  The  delight  of  rational  crea- 
tures, much  more  of  Christians  on  the  brink 
of  the  gi'ave,  is  to  redeem,  improve,  and 
solidly  enjoy  time;  but  yours,  alas!  con- 
sists in  the  bare,  irreparable  loss  of  that  in- 
valuable treasure!  O,  what  account  will 
3^ou  give  of  the  souls  you  neglect,  and  the 
talents  you  bury ! 

And  shall  we  kill  each  day !     If  trifling  kill, 
Sure  vice  must  b\itcher.     0  !  what  heaps  of  slain 
Call  out  for  vengeance  on  us  !     Time  destroy'd 
Is  suicide,  where  more  than  blood  is  spilt. — Youno. 


i^  AN   APPEAL   TO  [part  111. 

And  are  public  diversions  better  evidences 
of  our  innocence  and  happiness  I  Let  rea- 
son decide.  In  cities,  some  are  lavish  of  the 
gold  which  should  be  laid  by  for  payment 
of  their  debts,  or  the  relief  of  the  poor,  to 
buy  an  opportunity  of  acting,  under  a  mask, 
an  impertinent  or  immodest  part  without  a 
blush;  and  others  are  guilty  of  the  same 
injustice  or  prodigality,  that  they  may  be 
entitled  to  the  honor  of  waiting  upon  a 
company  of  idle  bufibons,  and  seeing  them 
act  what  would  make  a  modest  woman 
blush,  or  hearing  them  speak  what  persons 
of  true  piety,  or  pure  morals,  would  gladly 
pay  them  never  to  utter. 

Are  country  amusements  more  rational 
and  innocent?  What  shall  we  say  of  those 
Christian,  or  rather  heathenish  festivals, 
called  wakes,  annually  kept  in  honor  of  the 
saint  to  whom  the  parish  church  was  form- 
ally dedicated?  Are  they  not  celebrated 
with  the  idleness,  vanity,  and  debauchery 
of  the  floMia — with  the  noise,  riots,  and 
frantic  mirth  of  the  bacchanals — rather  than 
with  the  decent  solemnity,  pious  cheerful- 
ness, and  strict  temperance,  which  charac- 
terize the  religion  of  the  holy  Jesus  ? 

The  assizes  are  held,  the  judge  passes  an 
awful  sentence  of  transportation  or  death 
upon  guilty  wretches  who  stand,  pale  and 
trembling,  before  his  tribunal ;  and  twenty 
couple  of  gay  gentlemen  and  ladies,  as  if 


i»ART  m.]  MATTER   OF   FACT.  l2t 

they  rejoiced  in  the  infamy  and  destruction 
of  their  fellow-mortals,  dance  all  night,  per-^ 
haps  in  the  very  apartment  where  the  dis- 
tracted victims  of  justice  a  few  hours  before 
wrung  their  hands  and  rattled  their  irons ! 

The  races  are  advertised — all  tlie  country 
is  in  motion — neither  business,  rain,  nor 
storm,  can  prevent  thousands  from  running 
for  miles,  and  sometimes  through  the  worst 
of  roads,  to  feast  tlieir  eyes  upon  the  danger 
of  their  fellow-creatures,  and  divert  them- 
selves with  the  misery  of  the  most  useful 
animals.  Daring  mortals  hazard  their  necks 
upon  swift  coursers,  which  are  tortured  by 
the  severest  lashes  of  the  whip,  and  inces- 
sant pricks  or  tearing  gashes  of  the  spur, 
that  they  may  exert  their  utmiost  force,  strain 
every  nerve,  and  make  continued  efforts 
even  beyond  the  powers  of  nature  ;  whence 
—  to  say  nothing  of  the  fatal  accidents, 
which  yet,  alas !  too  frequently  happen  — • 
they  sometimes  pant  aw^ay  their  wretched 
lives  in  a  bath  of  sweat  and  blood ;  and  all 
this,  that  they  may  afford  a  barbarous  pleas- 
m-e  to  their  idle,  wanton,  and  barbarous 
beholders. 

In  one  place,  the  inhuman  sport  is  afforded 
by  an  unhappy  bird,  fixed  at  a  distance,  that 
the  sons  of  cruelty  may  long  exercise  their 
merciless  skill  in  its  lingering  and  painful 
destruction,  or  by  two  of  them  trained  up 
and  high  fed  for  the  battle.    The  hour  fixed 


128  A^  APPE^vL  TO         [part  m. 

for  the  obstinate  engagement  is  come;  and, 
as  if  it  was  not  enough  that  they  should  pick 
other's  eyes  out  with  the  strong  bills  nature 
has  given  them,  human  malice,  or  rather 
diabolical  cruelty,  comes  to  the  assistance 
of  their  native  fierceness.  Silver  spurs,  or 
steel  talons,  sharper  than  those  of  the  eagle, 
are  barbarously  fastened  to  their  feet ;  thus 
armed,  they  are  excited  to  leap  at  each 
other,  and,  in  a  hundred  repeated  onsets,  to 
tear  their  feathers  and  flesh  as  if  they  were 
contending  vultures;  and  if,  at  last,  one, 
blinded,  covered  with  blood  and  wounds, 
and  unable  to  stand  any  longer  the  metalic 
claws  of  his  antagonist,  enters  into  the  ago- 
nies of  death,  the  numerous  ring  of  stamp- 
ing, clapping,  shouting,  eagerly-betting,  or 
iiorribly-cursing  spectators,  is  as  highly  de- 
lighted as  if  the  tortured,  dying  creature 
was  the  common  enemy  of  mankind. 

In  another  place,  a  mulitude  of  spectators 
is  delightfully  entertained  by  two  brawny 
men,  who  unmercifully  knock  one  another 
down,  as  if  they  were  oxen  appointed  for  the 
slaughter,  and  continue  the  savage  play  till 
one,  with  his  flesli  bruised  and  his  bones 
shattered,  bleeding  and  gasping  as  in  the 
pangs  of  death,  yields  to  his  antagonist,  and 
thus  puts  an  end  to  the  shocking  sport. 

But  it  is,  perhaps,  a  difierent  spectacle 
that  recommends  itself  to  the  bloody  taste 
of  our  baptized  heathens.     Fierce  dogs  are 


J»AET  in.]         MA-rrEK  of  fact.  129 

excited  by  fiercer  men,  with  fury  to  fasten 
upon  the  nose,  or  tear  out  the  eyes,  of  a  poor 
confined  animal,  which  pierces  the  sky  with 
its  painful  and  lamentable  bellowings, 
enough  to  force  compassion  from  the  heart 
of  barbarians  not  totally  lost  to  all  sense  of 
humanity;  while,  in  the  mean  time,  the 
surrounding  savage  mob  rend  the  very  hea- 
vens with  the  most  horrid  imprecations  and 
shouts  of  applauding  joy;  sporting  them- 
selves with  that  very  misery  which  human 
nature^were  it  not  deploi*ably  corrupted — ■ 
would  teach  them  to  alleviate.* 

These   are  thy  favorite  amusements,  O 
England,  thou  center  of  the  civilized  world, 


*  "  I  ever  thouglit,"  says  Judge  Hale,  in  his  Contem- 
plations, "that  there  is  a  certain  degree  of  justice  due 
from  man  to  the  creatures,  as  from  man  to  man  ;  and 
that  an  excessive  use  of  the  creature's  labor  is  an  injus- 
tice for  which  he  must  account.  I  have,  therefore,  al- 
ways esteemed  it  as  a  part  of  my  duty,  and  it  has  always 
been  my  practice,  to  be  merciful  to  my  beasts  ;  and 
upon  the  same  account  I  have  declined  any  cruelty  to 
■any  of  thy  creatures,  and,  as  much  as  I  might,  prevent- 
ed it  in  others  as  a  tyranny.  I  have  abhorred  those 
sports  that  consist  in  the  torturing  of  thy  creatures ; 
and  if  any  noxious  creature  must  be  destroyed,  or  crea- 
tures for  food  must  be  talten,  it  has  been  mv  practice  to 
do  it  in  the  manner  that  may  be  with  the  least  torture 
or  cinielty  to  the  creature  ;  ever  remembering  that  though 
God  has  given  us  a  dominion  over  his  creatures,  yet  it 
is  under  a  law  of  justice,  prudence,  and  moderation  ; 
otherwise  we  should  become  tyrants  and  not  lords  over 
God's  creatures  ;  and  therefore  those  things  of  this  na- 
ture, which  others  have  practiced  as  recreations,  I  have 
avoided  as  sins." 


130  AN    APPEAL    TO  [PAKT  III. 

where  reformed  Cliristiaiiity,  deep -thinking 
wisdom,  and  p'.>llte  haming,  with  all  its  re- 
finements, liave  fixed  their  abode!  But,  in 
the  name  of  common  sense,  how  can  we 
clear  them  from  the  imputation  of  absurdity, 
folly,  and  madness?  And  by  what  means 
can  they  be  reconciled,  I  will  not  say  to  the 
religion  of  the  meek  Jesus,  but  to  the  phi- 
losophy of  a  Flato,  or  calm  reason  of  any 
thinking  man  ?  How  perverted  must  be  the 
taste,  how  irrational  and  cruel  the  diver- 
sions of  barbarians  in  other  parts  of  the 
globe !  And  how  applicable  to  all  the  wise 
man's  observation:  "Foolishness  is  bound 
up  in  the  heart  of  a  child,  and  madness  in 
the  breasts  of  the  sons  of  men." 

TWENTY-FOURTH    ARGUMENT. 

The  total  corruption  of  our  nature  ap- 
pears not  only  in  the  inclination  of  mankind 
to  pursue  irrational  and  cruel  amusements, 
but  in  their  general  propensity  to  commit 
the  most  unprofitable,  ridiculous,  inhuman, 
impious,  and  diabolical  sins. 

1.  The  most  unprofitable;  for  instance, 
that  of  sporting  in  profane  oaths  and  curses, 
with  the  tremendous  name  of  the  supreme 
Being.  Because  of  swearing  the  land 
mourneth,  said  a  prophet,  thousands  of  years 
ago ;  and  what  land,  even  in  Christendom, 
yea,  what  parish  in  this  reformed  island 
mourns  not,  or  ought  not  to  mourn,  for  the 


PARt  m.J  MATTER    OF    FACT.  131 

same  provoking  crime?  a  crime  which  is 
the  hellish  offspring  of  practical  Atheism 
and  heathenish  insolence  —  a  crime  that 
brings  neither  profit,  honor,  nor  pleasure  to 
the  profane  wretch  who  commits  it—  a  crime 
for  which  he  may  be  put  to  open  shame, 
forced  to  appear  before  a  magistrate,  and 
sent  for  ten  days  to  the  house  of  correction, 
unless  he  pays  an  ignominious  fine;  and 
w^hat  is  more  awful  still,  a  crime  which,  if 
persisted  in,  will  one  day  cause  him  to  gnaw 
liis  impious  tongue  in  the  severest  torments. 
Surely  man,  who  drinks  this  insipid,  and 
yet  destructive  iniquity  like  water,  must 
have  his  moral  taste  strangely  vitiated,  not 
to  say  diabolically  perverted. 

2.  The  most  ridiculous  sins.  In  what 
country,  town,  or  village,  do  not  women  be- 
tray their  silly  vanity  ?  Is  it  not  the  same 
foolish  disposition  of  heart,  which  makes 
them  bore  their  ears  in  Europe,  and  slit  their 
noses  in  America,  that  they  may  unnaturally 
graft  in  their  fiesh  pieces  of  glass,  shining 
pebbles,  glittering  gold,  or  trink:ets  of  mean- 
er metals?  And  when  female  Hottentots 
fancy  they  add  to  the  importance  of  their 
filthy  person  by  some  yards  of  the  bloody 
intestines  of  a  beast  twisted  round  their 
arms  or  necks,  do  they  not  evidence  the  very 
spirit  of  the  ladies  in  our  hemisphere,  who 
too  often  measure  their  dignity  by  the  yards 
of  colored  silk  bands  with  which  they  crown 


132  AN   APPEAL  TO  [PAET  Itt. 

themselves,  and  turn  the  grave  matron  into 
a  pitifiil  May  queen ! 

3.  The  most  inhuman  sins.  "  A  hundred 
thousand  mad  animals,  whose  heads  are 
covered  with  hats,"  says  Yoltaire,  "  advance 
to  kill,  or  to  be  killed,  by  a  like  number  of 
their  fellow-mortals,  covered  with  turbans. 
By  this  strange  procedure,  they  want,  at  best 
to  decide  whether  a  tract  of  land,  to  which 
none  of  them  all  lays  any  claim,  shall  belong 
to  a  certain  man  whom  they  call  Sultan,  or 
to  another  whom  they  name  Cesar,  neither 
of  whom  ever  saw,  or  will  see,  the  spot  so 
furiously  contended  for;  and  very  few  of 
those  creatures  who  thus  mutually  butcher 
one  another,  ever  beheld  the  animal  for 
whom  they  cut  each  other's  throats.  From 
time  immemorial  this  has  been  the  way  of 
mankind  almost  over  all  the  earth.  What 
an  excess  of  riiadness  is  this!  And  how 
deservedly  might  a  superior  Being  crush  to 
atoms  this  earthly  ball,  the  bloody  nest  of 
such  ridiculous  murderers ! " 

The  same  author  makes  elsewhere  the 
following  reflections  on  the  same  melan- 
choly subject.  "Famine,  pestilence,  and 
war,  are  the  three  most  famous  ingredients 
of  this  lower  world.  The  two  first  come 
from  God ;  but  the  last,  in  which  all  three 
concur,  comes  from  the  imagination  of 
princes  or  ministers.  A  king  fancies  that 
he  has  a  right  to  a  distant  province.     He 


rAET  m.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  133 

raises  a  multitude  of  men,  who  have  nothing 
to  do,  and  nothing  to  lose,  gives  them  a  red 
coat  and  a  laced  hat,  and  makes  them  wheel 
to  the  right,  and  wheel  to  the  left,  and 
march  to  glory.  Five  or  six  of  these  bellig- 
erent powers  sometimes  engage  together, 
three  against  three,  or  two  against  four ;  but 
whatever  part  they  take,  they  all  agree  in 
one  point — which  is,  to  do  their  neighbor  all 
possible  mischief.  The  most  astonishing 
thing  belonging  to  their  infernal  undertak- 
ing is,  that  every  ringleader  of  those  murder- 
ers gets  his  colors  consecrated  and  solemnly 
blessed  in  the  name  of  God,  before  he 
marches  up  to  the  destruction  of  his  fellow- 
creatm'es.  If  a  chief  warrior  has  had  the 
good  fortune  of  getting  only  two  or  three 
thousand  men  shiughtered,  lie  does  not  think 
it  worth  while  to  thank  God  for  it ;  but  if 
ten  thousand  have  been  destroyed  by  fire 
and  sword,  and  it,  to  complete  his  good  for- 
tune, some  capital  city  has  been  totally 
overthrown,  a  day  of  public  thanksgiving 
is  appointed  on  the  joyful  occasion.  Is  not 
that  a  fine  art  which  carries  such  desolation 
through  the  earth,  and  one  year  with  another, 
destroys  forty  thousand  men  out  of  a  hun- 
dred thousand ! " 

4.  The  most  impious  sins;  for  instance, 
that  of  idolatry.  '^  Before  the  coming  of 
Christ,"  says  a  late  divine,  "  all  the  polite 
and  barbarous  nations  among  the  heathens 


134  AN    APPEAL    TO  [PART  III. 

plunged  into  ii  with  equal  blindness.  And 
the  Jews  were  so  strongly  wedded  to  it,  that 
God's  miraculous  interposition,  both  by 
dreadful  judgments  and  aston'shing  mer- 
cies, could  not  for  eight  hundred  years  re- 
strain them  from  committing  it  in  the 
grossest  manner." 

Nor  need  we  look  at  either  heathens  or 
Jews,  to  see  the  proneness  of  mankind  to 
that  detestable  crime:  Christians  alone  can 
prove  the  charge.  To  this  day,  the  greatest 
part  of  them  pray  to  dead  men  and  dead 
women,  bow  to  images  of  stone  and  crosses 
of  wood,  and  make,  adore,  and  swallow 
down  the  wafer  god ;  and  those  who  pity 
them  for  this  ridiculous  idolatry,  till  convert- 
ing grace  interposes,  daily  set  up  their  idols 
in  their  hearts,  and,  without  going  to  the 
plain  of  Dura,  sacrifice  all  to  the  king's 
golden  image. 

And,  5.  The  most  diabolical  sin :  perse- 
cution, that  favorite  offspring  of  Satan, 
transformed  into  an  angel  of  light.  Perse- 
cution, that  bloody,  hypocritical  monster, 
which  carries  a  Bible,  a  liturgy,  and  a  bun- 
dle of  canons,  in  one  hand,  with  fire,  fagots, 
and  all  the  weapons  invented  by  cnielty  in 
the  other;  and  with  sanctified  looks,  dis- 
ti-esses,  racks,  or  murders  men,  either  be- 
cause they  love  God  or  because  they  can  not 
all  think  alike. 


PART  III.]  MATTER    OF   FACT.  l85 

Time  would  fail  to  tell  of  those  who,  on 
religions  aecoiints,  have  been  stoned  and 
sawn  asunder  by  the  Jews,  cast  to  the  lions 
and  burnt  by  the  heathens,  strangled  and 
impaled  by  the  Mohammedans,  and  butch- 
ered in  all  manner  of  ways  by  the  Christians. 

Yes,  we  must  confess  it.  Christian  Eome 
hath  glutted  herself  with  the  blood  of  mar- 
tyrs, which  heathenish  Rome  had  but  com- 
paratively tasted ;  and  when  Protestants  fled 
from  her  bloody  pale,  they  brought  along 
with  them  too  much  of  her  bloody  spirit: 
prove  the  sad  assertion,  poor  Servetus. 
When  Romish  inquisition  had  forced  thee 
to  fly  to  Geneva,  what  reception  didst  thou 
meet  with  in  that  reformed  city  ?  Alas !  the 
Papists  had  burned  thee  in  effigy,  the  Pro- 
testants burned  thee  in  reality,  and  Moloch 
triumphed  to  see  the  two  o^Dposite  parties 
agree  in  oflering  him  tlie  human  sacrifice. 

So  universally  restless  is  the  spirit  of 
persecution,  which  inspires  the  unrenewed 
pait  of  mankind,  that  when  people  of  the 
same  religion  have  no  outward  opposer  to 
tear,  they  bark  at,  bite,  and  devour  one 
another.  Is  it  not  the  same  bitter  zeal  that 
made  the  Pharisees  and  Saducees  among  the 
Jews,  and  now  makes  the  sects  of  Ali  and 
Omar  among  the  Mohammedans,  those  of  the 
Jasenists  and  Molinists  among  the  Papists, 
and  those  of  the  Calvinists  and  Armiuians 


136  AN   APPEAL   TO  [pART  m. 

among  the  Protestants,  oppose  each  other 
with  such  acrimony  and  virulence? 

But  let  us  look  around  us  at  home.  "When 
persecuting  Popery  had  almost  expired  in 
the  fires  in  which  it  burned  our  first  church- 
men, how  soon  did  those  who  survived 
them  commence  persecutors  of  the  Presby- 
terians ?  When  these,  forced  to  fly  to  Kew 
England  for  rest,  got  there  the  staff  of  pow- 
er in  their  hand,  (Ed  they  not,  in  their  turn, 
fall  upon,  and  even  hang  the  Quakers?  And 
now  that  an  act  of  toleration  binds  the  mon- 
ster, and  the  lash  of  pens,  consecrated  to  the 
defense  of  our  civil  and  religious  liberties-, 
makes  him  either  afraid  or  ashamed  of  roar- 
ing aloud  for  his  prey,  does  he  not  show,  by 
his  supercilious  looks,  malicious  sneers,  and 
settled  contempt  of  vital  piety^  what  he 
would  do  should  an  opportunity  offer?  And 
does  he  not  still,  under  artful  pretenses,  go 
to  the  utmost  length  of  his  chain,  to  wound 
the  reputation  of  those  whom  he  can  not  de- 
vour, and  inflict  at  least*  academic  death 
upon  those  whose  person  is  happily  secured 
from  his  rage? 

O,  ye  unconverted  among  mankind,  if  all 
these  abominations  every-where  break  out 
upon  you,  what  cages  of  unclean  birds,  what 
nests  swarming  with  cruel  vipers,  are  your 
deceitfiil  and  desperately-wicked  hearts  I 

*  See  Pietas  Oxoniensis. 


•ART  III.]  MATTER    OF    FAGl'.  137 


TWENTY-FIFITI  ARGUMENT. 

How  dreadfully  fallen  is  man,  if  he  has 
not  only  a  propensity  to  commit  the  above- 
mentioned  sins,  but  to  transgress  the  Divine 
commands  with  a  variety  of  shocking  ag- 
gravations! Yes,  mankind  are  prone  to 
sin: 

I.  Immediately,  by  a  kind  of  evil  instinct; 
as  children  wh-o  peevishly  strike  tlie  -very 
breast  they  suck,  and  betray  the  rage  of  their 
little  hearts  by  sobbing  and  swelling  some- 
times till,  by  forcing  their  bowels  out  of 
their  place,  they  bring  a  rupture  upon  them- 
selves ;  and  frequently  till  they  are  black  in 
the  face,  and  almost  suiFocated.  II.  Delib- 
erately ;  as  those  who,  having  life  and  death 
clearly  set  before  them,  willfully,  obstinately, 
choose  the  way  that  leads  to  certain  destruc- 
tion. III.  Repeatedly;  witness  liars,  who, 
because  their  crime  costs  them  but  a  breath, 
frequently  commit  it  at  every  breath.  IV. 
Continually;  as  rakes,  who  would  make 
their  whole  life  one  uninterrupted  scene  of 
debauchery,  if  their  exhausted  strength,  or 
purse,  did  not  force  them  to  intermit  their 
lewd  practices,  though  not  without  a  prom- 
ise to  renew  them  again  at  tlie  first  conve- 
nient opportunity.  Y.  Treacherously;  as 
those  Christians  who  forget  Divine  mercies, 
and  their  own  repeated  resolutions,  break 


138  AN    APPEAL    TO  [PART    III. 

through  the  solemn  vows  and  promises  made 
in  then'  sacraments,  and,  sinning  with  a 
high  hand  against  their  profession,  perfidi- 
ously fly  in  the  face  of  their  cojiscience,  the 
Church,  and  their  Savior.  VL  Daringly ; 
as  those  who  steal  under  the  gallows,  openly 
insult  their  parents  or  their  king,  laugh  at 
all  laws,  human  and  divine,  and  put  at  defi- 
ance all  that  are  invested  with  power  to  see 
them  executed.  YIL  Triumphantly;  as  the 
vast "  number  of  those  who  glory  in  their 
shame,  sound  aloud  the  trumpet  of  their 
own  wickedness,  and  boast  of  their  horrid, 
repeated  debaucheries,  as  admirable  and 
praiseworthy  deeds.  VIII.  Progressively; 
till  they  have  filled  up  the  measure  of  their 
iniquities,  as  individuals;  witness  Judas, 
who,  from  covetousness,  proceeded  to  hy- 
pocrisy, theft,  treason,  despair,  and  self- 
murder;  or,  as  a  nation,  witness  the  Jews, 
who,  after  despising  and  killing  their  proph- 
ets, rejected  the  Son  of  God,  affirmed  he 
was  mad,  stigmatized  him  with  the  name  of 
deceiver,  said  he  was  Beelzebub  himself, 
offered  him  all  manner  of  indignities,  bought 
his  blood,  prayed  it  miglit  be  on  tliem  and 
their  children,  rested  not  till  they  had  put 
the  Prince  of  Life  to  the  most  ignominious 
death,  and,  horrible  to  say  !  made  sport  with 
the  groans  which  rent  the  rocks  around 
them,  and  threw  the  earth  into  convulsions 
under  their  feet.     IX.  Unnaturally ;  I .  By 


PART  in.J  MATTER    OF    FACT.  ISS 

astonishing  barbarities,  as  the  women  who 
murder  their  own  children,  the  Greeks  and 
Romans,  who  exposed  them  to  be  the  living 
prey  of  wild  beasts,  the  savages,  who  knocK 
their  aged  parents  on  the  head,  the  canni- 
bals, who  roast  and  eat  their  prisoners  of 
war,  aud  some  revengeful  people,  who,  to 
taste  all  the  sweetness  of  their  devilish  pas- 
sion, have  murdered  their  enemy,  and  eaten 
up  his  liver  and  heart.  2.  By  the  most 
diabolical  superstitions;  as  the  Israelites 
who,  when  they  had  learned  the  works  of 
the  heathenSjSacrificed  their  sons  and  their 
daughters  to  devils,  and,  by  the  horrible 
practices  of  witchcraft,  endeavored  to  raise, 
and  deal  with  infernal  spirits;  and  3.  By 
the  most  preposterous  gratification  of  sense ; 
witness  the  incests*  and  rapes  committed  in 
this  land,  the  infamous  fii'es  which  drew  fire 
and  brimstone  down  from  heaven  upon  ac- 
cursed cities,  and  the  horrid  lusts  of  the 
Canaanites  —  though,  alas !  not  confined  to 

»  The  reason  which  engaged  the  publisher  of  these 
sheets  to  preach  to  some  of  the  colliers  in  his  neighbor- 
hood, was  the  horrid  length  they  went  in  immorality. 
One  of  them,  whose  father  was  hanged,  upon  returning 
himself  from  transportation,  in  cold  blood,  attempted  to 
ravish  his  own  daughter  in  the  presence  of  his  own 
wife,  and  was  just  prevented  from  completing  his  crime, 
by  the  utmost  exertion  of  the  united  strength  of  the 
mother  and  child.  When  brutish  ignorance  and  hea- 
thenish wickedness  break  out  into  such  uimatuial  enor- 
mities, who  would  not  break  through  the  hedge  of 
canonical  regularity  ? 


140  AN   APPEAL  TO  [PART  Ili. 

Canaan — which  gave  birth  to  the  laws  re- 
corded, Lev.  xvii.  7,  23,  and  xx.  16  * — laws 
that  are  at  once  the  disgrace  of  mankind, 
and  the  proof  of  my  assertion.  X.  What  is 
most  astonishing  of  all,  by  apostasy;  as 
those  who,  having  begun  in  the  spirit,  and 
tasted  the  bitterness  of  repentance,  the  good 
word  of  God,  and  the  powers  of  the  world 
to  come,  make  shipwreck  of  the  faith,  deny 
the  Lord  that  bought  them,  account  the 
blood  of  the  covenant,  wherewith  they  were 
sanctified,  an  unlioly  thing,  and  so  scandal- 
ously end  in  the  flesh,  that  they  are  justly 
compared  to  trees  withered,  plucked  up  by 
the  roots,  twice  dead,  and  to  raging  waves 
of  the  sea,  foaming  out  their  own  shame,  to 
whom  is  reserved  the  blackness  of  darkness 
forever. 

Good  God !  what  line  can  fathom  an  abyss 
of  cori-uption,  the  overflowings  of  which  are 
more  or  less  attended  with  these  multiplied 
and  shocking  aggravations? 

TWENTY-SIXTH    ARGUMENT. 

If  the  force  of  a  torrent  may  be  known  by 
the  hight  and  number  of  the  banks  which  it 
overflows,  the  strength  of  this  corruption 
will  be  rightly  estimated  from  the  high  and 

*  In  the  last  century,  an  Irish  bishop  was  cleai'ly 
convicted  of  the  crime  forbidden  in  those  laws,  and  suf- 
fered death  for  it. 


PART  III.]  MATTER    OF   FACT.  141 

numerous  dikes  raised  to  stem  it,  which  it 
nevertheless  continually  breaks  through. 

Ignorance  and  debaucheiy,  injustice  and 
impiety,  in  all  their  shapes,  still  overspread 
the  whole  earth,  notwithstanding  innumera- 
ble means  used  in  all  ages  to  suppress  and 
prevent  them. 

The  almost  total  extirpation  of  mankind 
by  the  deluge,  the  fiery  showers  that  con- 
sumed Sodom,  the  ten  Eg}^ptian  plagues, 
the  entire  excision  of  whole  nations  who 
were  once  famous  for  their  wickedness,  the 
captivities  of  the  Jews,  the  destruction  of 
thousands  of  cities  and  kingdoms,  and  mill- 
ions of  more  private  judgments,  never  fully 
stopped  immorality  in  any  one  country. 

The  strikiug  miracles  wrought  by  proph- 
ets, the  alarming  sermons  preached  by  di- 
vines, the  infinite  number  of  good  books 
published  in  almost  all  languages,  and  the 
founding  of  myriads  of  churches,  religious 
houses,  schools,  colleges,  and  universities, 
have  not  yet  caused  impiety  to  hide  its  bra- 
zen face  anywhere.  The  making  of  all  sorts 
of  excellent  laws,  the  appointing  of  magis- 
trates and  judges  to  put  them  in  force,  the 
forming  of  associations,  for  the  reformation 
of  manners,  the  filling  of  thousands  of  pris- 
ons, and  erecting  of  millions  of  racks  and 
gallowses,  have  not  yet  suppressed  one  vice. 

And  what  is  most  amazing  of  all,  the  life, 
miracles,   suflerings,   death,   and  heavenly 


142  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PAET   III. 

doctrine  of  the  Son  of  God  ;  the  labors,  wri- 
tings, and  martyrdom  of  his  disciples  ;  the 
example  and  entreaties  of  millions  that  have 
lived  and  died  in  the  faith ;  the  inexpressi^ 
ble  horrors  and  frightful  warnings  of  tliou- 
sands  of  wicked  men,  who  have  testified  in 
their  last  moments,  that  they  had  worked 
out  their  damnation,  and  were  just  going  to 
their  own  place ;  the  blood  of  nn^riads  of 
martyrs,  the  strivings  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the 
dreadful  curses  of  the  law,  and  the  glorious 
promises  of  the  Gospel — all  these  means  to- 
gether have  not  extirpated  immorality  and 
profaneness  out  of  one  single  town  or  vil^ 
lage  in  all  the  world ;  no,  nor  out  of  one 
single  family  for  any  length  of  time.  And 
this  will  probably  continue  to  be  the  des- 
perate case  of  mankind,  till  the  Lord  lays 
to  his  powerful  hand  ;  seconds  these  means 
by  the  continued  strokes  of  the  sword  of  his 
Spirit ;  pleads  by  fire  and  sword  with  all 
flesh,  and,  according  to  his  promise,  causes 
rigteousness  to  cover  the  earth,  as  the  wa- 
ters cover  the  sea. 

Is  not  this  demonstration  founded  on  mat- 
ter of  fact,  that  human  corruption  is  not 
only  deep  as  the  ocean,  but  impetuous  as  an 
overflowing  river  which  breaks  down  all  its 
banks,  and  leaves  marks  of  devastation  in 
every  place?  This  will  still  appear  in  a 
clearer  light,  if  we  consider  the  strong  op- 
position which  our  natural  depravity  makes 
to  divine  grace  in  the  unconverted. 


PAET  m.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  143 


TWENTY- SEVENTH    AEQUMENT. 

When  the  Lord,  by  the  rod  of  affliction, 
the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  power  of  his 
grace,  attacks  the  hard  heart  of  a  sinner, 
how  obstinately  does  he  resist  the  sharp, 
though  gracious  operation !  To  make  an 
honorable  and  vigorous  defense,  he  puts  on 
the  shining  robes  of  his  formality  ;  he  stands 
firm  in  the  boasted  armor  of  his  moral  pow- 
ers ;  he  daubs  with  untempered  mortar  the 
ruinous  wall  of  his  conduct ;  with  self-right- 
eous resolutions,  and  pharisaic  professions 
of  vii'tue,  he  builds,  as  he  thinks,  an  im- 
pregnable tower  ;  must  ers  and  draws  up  in 
battle  array  his  poor  works,  artfully  putting 
in  the  tront  those  that  make  the  hnest  ap- 
pearance, and  carefully  concealing  the  vices 
which  he  can  neither  disguise  nor  dress  up 
in  the  regimentals  of  virtue. 

In  the  meantime  he  prepares  the  carnal 
weapons  of  his  wartare,  and  raises  the  bat- 
tery of  a  multitude  of  objections  to  silence 
the  truth  that  begins  to  gall  him.  He  af- 
firms ''  the  preachers  of  it  are  deceivers  and 
madmen,"  till  he  sees  the  Jews  and  heath- 
ens fixed  even  upon  Christ  and  St.  Paul  the 
very  same  opprobrious  names  ;  he  calls  it  a 
"new  doctrine,"  till  he  is  obliged  to  ac- 
knowledge that  it  is  as  old  as  the  reformers, 
the  apostles,  and  the  prophets  ;  he  says  "  it 


144:  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  HI* 

is  fancy,  delusion,  enthusiasm,"  till  the 
blessed  effects  of  it  on  true  believers  con- 
strain him  to  drop  the  trite  and  slanderous 
assertion ;  he  declares  that  "  it  drives  peo- 
ple out  of  their  senses,  or  makes  them  mel- 
ancholy," till  he  is  compelled  to  confess  that 
the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of 
wisdom,  and  that  none  are  so  happy  and 
joyfiil  as  those  who  truly  love  and  zealously 
serve  God  ;  he  urges  that  '^  it  destroys  good 
works,"  till  a  sight  of  the  readiness  of  be- 
lievers, and  of  his  own  backwardness  to 
perform  them,  makes  him  ashamed  of  the 
groundless  accusation;  he  will  tell  you  twen- 
ty times  over,  ''  there  is  no  need  of  so  much 
ado,"  till  he  discovers  the  folly  of  being 
careless  on  the  brink  of  eternal  ruin,  and 
observes  that  the  nearness  of  temporal  dan- 
ger puts  him  upon  the  utmost  exertion  of  all 
his  powers.  Perhaps,  to  get  himself  a  name 
among  his  profane  companions,  he  lampoons 
the  Scriptures,  or  casts  out  firebrands  and 
arrows  against  the  despised  disciples  of  Je- 
sus :  "  They  are  all  poor,  illiterate,"  says  he, 
"fools  or  knaves,  cheats  and  hypocrites," 
etc.,  till  the  word  of  God  stops  his  mouth, 
and  he  sees  himself  the  greatest  hypocrite 
with  whom  he  is  acquainted. 

When  by  such  heavy  chai'ges  he  has  long 
kept  off  the  truth  from  his  heart,  and  the 
servants  of  God  from  his  company,  this  kind 
of  ammunition  begins  to  fail ;  and  he  bari- 


PART  m.]     MAITEK  OF  FACT.         145 

cades  himself  with  the  fear  of  being  undone 
in  his  circumstances,  till  experience  con- 
vinces him  that  no  good  thing  shall  God 
withhold  from  them  that  live  a  godly  life, 
and  that  all  things  shall  be  added  to  them 
who  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God.  He 
then  hides  himself  in  the  crowd  of  the  un- 
godly, and  says,  ''  if  he  perishes,  many  will 
share  the  same  fate,"  till  he  sees  the  glaring 
absurdity  of  going  to  hell  for  the  sake  of 
company.  He  shelters,  at  last,  under  the 
protection  of  the  rich,  the  great,  the  learned 
despisers  of  Christ  and  the  cross,  till  the 
mines  of  their  wickedness  springing  on  all 
sides  around  him,  makes  him  fly  to  the 
sanctuary  of  the  Lord ;  and  there  he  sees 
the  ways  and  undei-stands  the  end  of  these 
men. 

When  all  his  batteries  are  silenced,  and  a 
breach  is  made  in  his  conscience,  he  looks 
out  for  some  secret  way  to  leave  Sodom, 
without  being  taken  notice  of,  and  derided 
by  those  who  fight  under  Satan's  banner; 
and  the  fear  of  being  taken  for  one  of  them 
that  fly  from  the  wrath  to  come,  and  openly 
take  the  part  of  a  holy  God  against  a  sinM 
world,  pierces  him  through  with  many  sor- 
rows. 

Are  the  outworks   taken,   has   he  been 

forced  to  part  with  his  gross  immoralities, 

he  has  generally  recourse  to  a  variety  of 

stratagems.      Sometimes  he  publicly  dis- 

10 


146  AN    APPEAL   TO  [pART   m. 

misses  Satan's  garrison — fleshly  lusts  which 
war  against  the  godly,  and  keep  under  the 
ungodly  soul ;  but  it  is  only  to  let  them  in 
again  secretly,  either  one  by  one  or  with 
forces  seven  times  greater,  so  that  his  last 
state  is  worse  than  the  first.  At  other  times 
he  hoists  up  the  white  flag  of  truth,  appar- 
ently yields  to  conviction,  favors  the  minis- 
ters of  the  Gospel,  admits  the  language  of 
Canaan,  and  warmly  contends  for  evangeli- 
cal doctrines ;  but,  alas !  the  place  has  not 
surrendered,  his  heart  is  not  given  to  God; 
spiritual  wickedness,  under  fair  ahows  of 
zeal,  still  keeps  possession  for  the  god  of  this 
world ;  and  the  shrewd  hypocrite  artfully 
imitates  the  behavior  of  a  true  Israelite,  just 
as  Satan  transforms  himself  to  an  angel  of 
light. 

Is  he  at  last  deeply  convinced,  that  the 
only  means  of  escaping  destruction  and 
capitulating  to  advantage  is,  to  deliver  up 
the  traitor  sin !  Yet  what  a  long  parley  does 
he  hold  about  it !  .  What  a  multitude  of 
plausible  reasons  does  he  advance  to  put  it 
off  from  day  to  day  1  "  He  is  yet  young — 
the  Lord  is  merciful — all  have  their  foibles — • 
we  are  here  in  an  imperfect  state' — it  is  a 
little  sin — it  may  be  consistent  with  loyalty 
to  God — it  hurts  nobody  but  himself — many 
pioiiri  men  were  once  guilty  of  it  —  by  and 
by  he  will  repent  as  they  did,"  etc.  When 
louder  summons  and  increasing  fears  com- 


PABT  m.]  MATTEB   OF  FACT.  147 

pel  him  to  renounce  the  lusts  of  the  flesh, 
how  strongly  does  he  plead  for  those  of  the 
mind !  And  after  he  has  given  up  his  bo- 
som sin  with  his  lips,  how  treacherously 
does  he  hide  it  in  the  inmost  recesses  of  his 
heart ! 

Never  did  a  besieged  town  dispute  the 
ground  with  such  obstinacy,  and  hold  out 
by  such  a  variety  of  stratagems,  as  corrupt 
man  stands  it  out  against  the  repeated  at- 
tacks of  truth  and  grace.  K  he  yields  at 
all,  it  is  seldom  before  he  is  brought  to  the 
greatest  extremity.  He  feeds  on  the  dust  of 
the  earth :  he  tries  to  till  his  soul  with  the 
husks  of  vanity,  and  fares  hard  on  sounds, 
names,  forms,  opinions,  withered  experience, 
dry  notions  of  faith,  and  empty  professions 
of  hope,  and  fawning  shows  of  love,  till  the 
mighty  famine  arises,  and  the  intolerable 
want  of  substantial  bread  forces  him  to  sur- 
render at  discretion,  and  without  reserve. 

Some  stand  it  out  thus  against  the  God 
of  their  salvation  ten  or  twenty  years ;  and 
others  never  yield  till  the  terrors  of  death 
storm  their  affighted  souls,  their  last  sick- 
ness batters  down  their  tortured  bodies,  and 
the  poison  of  the  arrows  of  the  Almighty 
drinks  up  their  wasted  spirits.  What  a 
strong  proof  is  this  of  the  inveteracy  and 
the  obstinacy  of  our  corruption ! 


148  AN    APPEAL    TO  [PART  IfT. 


TWENTY-EIGHTH    ARGIJMENT. 

But  a  still  stronger  may  be  drawn  from 
the  amazing  struggles  of  God's  children 
with  their  depravity,  even  after  they  have, 
through  grace,  powerfully  subdued,  and  glo- 
riously triumphed  over  it.  Their  Redeemer 
himself  is  the  Captain  of  their  salvation; 
they  are  embarked  with  him  and  bound  for 
heaven ;  they  look  at  the  compass  of  God's 
word;  they  hold  the  rudder  of  sincerity; 
they  crowd  all  the  sails  of  their  good  reso- 
lutions, and  pious  affections,  to  catch  the 
gales  of  Divine  assistance;  they  exhort  one 
another  daily,  to  ply  the  oars  of  faith  and 
prayer  with  watchful  industry ;  tears  of  deep 
repentance  and  fervent  desire  often  bedew 
their  faces  in  the  pious  toil;  they  would 
rather  die  than  draw  back  to  perdition ;  but, 
alas !  the  stream  of  corruption  is  so  impetu- 
ous, that  it  often  prevents  their  making  any 
sensible  progress  in  their  spiritual  voyage ; 
and  if  in  an  unguarded  hour  they  drop  the 
oar,  and  faint  in  the  work  of  faith,  the  pa- 
tience of  hope,  or  the  labor  of  love,  tli ey  are 
presently  carried  down  into  the  dead  sea  of 
religious  formality,  or  the  wdiirjpools  of 
scandalous  wickedmss.  Witness  the  luke- 
warmness  of  the  Laodiceans  —  the  adulteiy 
of  David  — 'the  perjury  of  Peter — the  final 
apostasy  of  Judas,  and  tlie  shameful  flight 
of  all  tiie  disciples. 


PART  m.]  MATTER   OF   FACT.  149 


TWENTY-NINTH    AKGUMENT. 

When  evidences  of  the  most  opposite  in- 
terest agree  in  their  deposition  of  a  matter 
of  fact,  its  truth  is  greatly  corroborated.  To 
the  last  argument,  taken  from  some  sad  ex- 
periences of  God's  people,  I  shall,  therefore, 
add  one  drawu  from  the  religious  rites  of 
Paganism,  the  confessions  of  ancient  hea- 
thens, and  the  testimony  of  modern  Deists. 

When  the  heathens  made  their  temples 
stream  with  the  blood  of  slaughtered  heca- 
tombs, did  they  not  often  explicitly  depre- 
cate the  wrath  of  Heaven  and  impending 
destruction  ?  And  was  it  not  a  sense  of  their 
guilt  and  danger,  and  a  hope  that  the  pun- 
ishment they  deserved  might  be  transferred 
to  their  bleeding  victims,  which  gave  birth 
to  their  numerous  expiatory  and  propitiatory 
sacrifices?  If  this  must  be  granted,  it  is 
plain  those  sacrifices  were  so  many  proofs 
that  the  considerate  heathens  were  not  utter 
strangers  to  their  corruption  and  danger. 

Bui  let  them  speak  their  own  sentiments. 
Not  to  mention  their  allegorical  fables  of 
Prometheus,  who  brought  a  curse  upon  earth 
by  stealing  fire  out  of  heaven,  and  of  Pan- 
dora, whose  fatf^l  curiosity  let  all  sorts  of 
woes  and  diseases  loose  upon  mankind,  does 
not  Ovid,  in  his  Metamorphoses,  give  a 
striking  account  of  the  fall  and  its  dreadful 
consequences?     Read  his  description  of  the 


150  AN   APPEAL  TO  [part  IH. 

golden  age,  and  you  see  Adam  in  Paradise ; 
proceed  to  the  iron  age,  and  you  behold  the 
horrid  picture  of  our  consummate  wicked- 
ness. 

II'  the  ancients  had  no  idea  of  that  native 
propensity  to  evil  which  we  call  original 
depravity,  what  did  Plato  mean  by  our  nat- 
ural wickedness?*  And  Pythagoras,  by 
the  fatal  companion,  the  noxious  strife  that 
lurks  within  us,  and  was  born  along  with 
us  ?  f  Did  not  Solon  take  for  his  motto  the 
well-known  saying  which,  though  so  much 
neglected  now,  was  formerly  written  in  gol- 
den capitals  over  the  door  of  Apollo's  tem- 
ple at  Delphos,  Know  thyself?  J  Are  we 
not  informed  by  the  heathen  historians  that 
Socrates,  the  prince  of  the  Greek  sages,  ac- 
knowledged lie  was  naturally  prone  to  the 
grossest  vices  ?  Does  not  Seneca,  the  best 
of  the  Roman  philosophers,  observe.  We 
are  born  in  such  a  condition,  that  we  are 
not  subject  to  fewer  disorders  of  the  mind 
than  of  the  body?§     Yea,  that  all  vices  are 


*  Kakia  en  phusei.  Hence  that  excellent  definition  of 
true  religion.  Therapeia  psuches.  The  cure  of  a  dis- 
eased soul. 

t  Eurethre  gar  sunopados  eris  hlaptousa  leletheu 
Sumphtuos.     Aur.  Carm. 

{  Gnothi  seauton. 

§  Hac  conditione  nati  suraus.  Animalia  obnoxia  noi> 
paiicioribus  animi  quara  corporis  morbis. 


PART  III.]  MAITER    OF    FACT.  151 

in  all  men,  though  they  do  not  break  out  in 
every  one :  *  and  that  to  confess  them  is  the 
beginning  of  our  cure?t  And  had  not 
Cicero  lamented  before  Seneca,  that  men  are 
brought  into  life  by  nature  as  a  step-mother, 
with  a  naked,  frail,  and  infirm  body,  and  a 
soul  prc>ue  to  divers  lusts  ? 

Even  some  of  the  sprightliest  poets  bear 
their  testimony  to  the  mournful  truth  I  con- 
tend for.  Propertius  could  say.  Every  body 
has  a  vice  to  which  he  is  inclined  by  na- 
ture.J  Horace  declared,  that  no  man  is 
born  free  from  vices,  and  that  he  is  the  best 
man  who  is  oppressed  with  the  least  ;§  that 
mankind  rush  into  wickedness,  and  always 
desire  what  is  forbidden ;  ||  that  youth  hath 
the  softness  of  wax  to  receive  vicious  im- 
pressions, and  the  hardness  of  a  rock  to  re- 
sist virtuous  admonitions  ;•[[  in  a  word,  that 
we  are  mad  enough  to  attack  heaven  itself, 
and  that  our  repeated  crimes  do  not  suffer 

*  Onmia  in  omnibus  vitia  sunt,  sed  non  omi>ia  in 
singulis  extant. 

t  Vitia  sua  confiteri  sanitatis  principium  est. 

$  Unicuique  dedit  vitium  natura  creato. 

§  Nam  vitiis  nemo  sine  nascitur,  optitnus  ille  est. 
Qui  minimis  urgttur. 

II  Gens  humana  ruit  per  vetitum  nefas, 
Nitimur  in  vetiLum  semper  cupimusque  negata. 

If  Cereus  in  vititum  flccti,  monitoribus  asper. 


152  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PART  m. 

the  God  of  heaven  to  lay  by  his  wrathful 
thunderbolts.* 

And  Juvenal,  as  if  he  had  understood 
what  St.  Paul  says  of  the  carnal  mind,  af- 
firms that  nature,  unchangeably  fixed,  tends, 
yea,  runs  back  to  wickedness,  as  bodies  to 
their  center. f 

Thus  the  very  depositions  of  the  heathens, 
in  their  lucid  intervals,  as  well  as  their  sac- 
rifices, prove  the  depravity  and  danger  of 
mankind.  And  so  does  liKewise  the  testi- 
mony of  some  of  our  modern  Deistical 
philosophers. 

The  ingenious  author  of  a  book  called 
Philosophical  Inquiries  concerning  the 
Americans,  informs  us,  it  is  a  custom  among 
some  Indians,  that  as  soon  as  the  wife  is  de- 
livered of  a  child,  the  husband  must  take 
to  his  bed,  where  he  is  waited  on  by  the 
poor  woman  who  should  have  been  brought 
there ;  and  that  to  this  day,  the  same  ridic- 
ulous custom  prevails  in  some  parts  of 
Prance.  ''From  this  and  other  instances," 
says  our  Inquirer,  "we  may  collect  that, 
howevtT  men  may  differ  in  other  points, 
there  is  a  most  striking  contbrmity  among 
them  in  absurdity ^ 

*  Ccelum  ipsum  petiinus  stultitia ;  neque 
Per  nostrum  patiraur  scelus 
Iracunda  Jovem  ponere  fulinina. 

fAd  mores  natiira  recurrit 
Damnatos.  fixa  et  mutari  nescia. 


PART  ra.]  MATTER   OF    FACT.  153 

The  same  philosopher,  who  is  by  no  means 
tainted  with  what  some  persons  are  pleased 
to  call  enthusiasm,  confirms  the  doctrine  of 
our  natural  depravity  by  the  following  an- 
ecdote, and  the  ironical  observation  with 
which  it  is  closed.  The  Esquimaux  —  the 
wildest  and  most  sottish  people  in  all  Amer- 
ica— call  themselves  men,  and  all  other  na- 
tions barbarians.  "Human  vanity,  we  see, 
thrives  equally  well  in  all  climates ;  in  Lab- 
rador as  in  Asia.  Beneficent  nature  has 
dealt  out  as  much  of  this  comfortable  qual- 
ity to  a  Greenlander,  as  to  the  most  con- 
summate French  petit  maitre." 

The  following  testimony  is  so  much  more 
striking,  as  it  comes  from  one  of  the  great- 
est poets,  philosophers,  and  Deists  of  this 
present  fi-ee-thinking  age.  "Who  can  with- 
out horror  consider  the  whole  earth  as  the 
empire  of  destruction!  It  abounds  in  won- 
ders, it  abounds  also  in  victims ;  it  is  a  vast 
field  of  carnage  and  contagion.  Every 
species  is,  without  pity,  pursued  and  torn  to 
pieces  through  the  earth,  and  air,  and  water. 
In  man  there  is  more  wretchedness  than  in 
all  other  animals  put  together;  he  smai-ts 
continually  under  two  scourges,  which  other 
animals  never  feel  —  anxiety,  and  a  listless- 
ness  in  appetence,  which  makes  him  weary 
of  himself.  He  loves  life,  and  yet  he  knows 
that  he  must  die.  If  he  enjoys  some  tran- 
sient good,  for  which  he  is  thankful  to  hea- 


154  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PAKT  HI. 

ven,  he  suffers  various  evils,  and  is  at  last 
devoured  by  worms.  This  knowledge  is  his 
fatal  prerogative :  other  animals  have  it  not. 
He  feels  it  every  moment  rankling  and  cor- 
roding in  his  breast.  Yet  he  spends  the 
transient  moment  of  his  existence  in  diffus- 
ing the  misery  that  he  suffers — in  cutting 
the  throats  of  his  fellow-creatures  for  pay — > 
in  cheating  and  in  being  cheated  —  in  rob- 
bing and  in  being  robbed  —  in  serving  that 
he  may  command,  and  in  repenting  of  all 
that  he  does.  The  bulk  of  mankind  are 
nothing  more  than  a  crowd  of  wretches, 
equally  criminal  and  unfortunate,  and  the 
globe  contains  rather  carcasses  than  men. 
I  tremble,  upon  a  review  of  this  dreaM 
picture,  to  find  that  it  implies  a  complaint 
against  Providence,  and  I  wish  that  I  had 
never  been  born." —  Voltaire's  Gospel  of  the 
Day*  - 

*  Wild  error  is  often  the  guide,  and  glaring  contra- 
diction the  badge,  both  of  those  who  reject  revelation, 
like  Voltaire,  and  of  those  who  indirectly  set  aside  one- 
half  of  it,  like  the  Pharisees  and  Antinomians  around 
us.  See  a  striking  proof  of  it.  This  very  author,  in 
another  book — 0  !  see  what  antichristian  morality  comes 
to — represents  the  horrible  sin  of  Sodom  as  an  excusa- 
ble mistake  of  nature,  and  assures  us,  that,  "  At  the 
worst  of  times,  there  is  at  most  upon  the  earth,  one  man 
in  a  thousand  that  can  be  called  wicked."  Now  for  the 
proof !  Hardly  do  we  see  one  of  those  enormous  crimes 
that  shock  human  nature  committed  in  ten  years,  at 
Rome,  Paris,  or  London,  those  cities  where  the  thirst  of 
gain,  which  is  the  parent  of  all  crimes,  is  carried  to  the 
highest  pitch.     If  men  were  essentially    wicked,   we 


PAET  m.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  165 


THIRTIETH    ARGUMENT. 

And  yet,  O  strange  infatuation!  vain  man 
will  be  wise,  and  wicked  man  pretends  to  be 
righteons !  Far  from  repenting  in  the  dust, 
he  pleads  liis  innoceiicw,  and  claims  the  re- 
wards of  imaginary  merit!     Incredible  as 

should  find  eveiy  morning  husbands  murdered  by  their 
•wives,  etc.,  as  we  do  hens  killed  by  foxes."  According 
to  this  apostle  of  the  Deistical  world,  it  seems,  that  the 
most  intense  thirst  of  gold  is  no  degree  of  wickedness  ; 
that  a  woman  to  be  very  good,  needs  only  not  to  cut  her 
husband's  throat  while  he  is  asleep  ;  and  that  it  even 
little  matters  whether  she  omits  the  dire  murder  out  of 
regard  to  his  life,  or  her  own.  What  moral  philosophy 
is  nere  !  Why,  if  the  sin  of  Sodom  is  a  pecadillo,  or 
frolicsome  mistake,  and  nothing  is  wickedness  but  a 
treacherous  cutting  of  a  husband's  or  a  parent's  throat, 
I  extend  my  charity  four  times  beyond  thee,  0  Voltaire, 
and  do  maintain  that  there  is  not  one  wicked  man  in 
five  thousand. 

I  insert  this  note  to  obviate  the  charges  of  severe  crit- 
ics, who  accuse  me  of  di^aling  in  "gross  misrepresenta- 
tions, false  quotations,  and  forgeries,"  because  I  quote 
some  authors,  when  they  speak  as  the  oracles  of  God  ; 
and  do  not  swell  my  book  with  their  inconsistencies, 
when  they  contraaict  the  Scriptures,  reason,  and  the 
truths  which  they  themselves  have  advanced  in  some 
happy  moments  ;  and  because  I  cannot  force  my  reason 
to  maintain  with  them  both  sides  of  a  glaring  contra- 
diction. 

0,  ye  Deistical  moralists,  let  me  meet  with  more  can- 
dor, justice,  and  mercy  from  you,  than  I  have  done  from 
the  warm  opposers  of  the  second  Gospel  axiom.  It  is 
enough  that  you  discard  Scripture  ;  do  not,  like  them, 
make  it  a  part  of  your  orthodoxy  to  murder  reason ,  and 
kick  common  sense  out  of  doors. 


166  AN   APPEAI.   TO  [part  III. 

the  assertion  is,  a  thousand  witnesses  are 
ready  to  confirm  it. 

Come  forth,  ye  natural  sons  of  virtue, 
who,  with  scornful  boasts,  attack  the  doc- 
trine of  man's  depravity !  To  drown  the 
whispers  of  reason  and  experience,  sound 
each  your  own  trumpet  —  thank  God  that 
you  "are  not  as  other  men  " — inform  us  you 
"have  a  good  heart''  and  "a  clear  con- 
science;" assure  us,  you  "do  your  duty, 
your  endeavors,  your  best  endeavors,"  to 
please  the  Author  of  your  lives ;  vow  you 
"  never  were  guilty  of  any  crime,  never  did 
any  harm ;  "  and  tell  us,  you  hope  to  mount 
to  heaven,  on  the  strong  pinions  of  your 
"good  works  and  pious  resolutions." 

vVhen  you  have  thus  acted  the  Pharisee's 
part  before  your  fellow-creatures,  go  to  your 
Creator,  and  assume  the  character  of  the 
publican.  Confess  with  your  lips,  you  are 
miserable  sinners,  who  have  done  what  you 
ought  not  to  have  done,  and  left  undone 
what  you  ought  to  have  done.  Protest,  there 
is  no  health  in  you ;  complain  that  the  re- 
membrance of  your  sins  is  grievous  to  you, 
and  the  burden  of  them  intolerable.  But 
remember,  O  ye  self-righteous  formalists, 
that  by  this  glaring  inconsistency  you  give 
the  strongest  proof  of  your  unrighteousness. 
You  are,  nevertheless,  modest,  when  com- 
pared with  your  brethren  of  the  Romish 
Church. 


PART  m.]     MATTER  OF  FACT.  157 

TheBe,  far  from  thinking  themselves  un- 
profitable servants,  fancy  they  are  literally 
righteous  over  much.  Becoming  merit- 
mongers,  they  make  a  stock  of  their  works 
of  supererogation,  set  up  shop  with  the 
righteousness  they  can  spare  to  others,  and 
expose  to  sale  indulgences  and  pardons  out 
of  their  pretended  treasury.  Nor  are  there 
wanting  sons  of  Simon,  who,  with  ready 
money,  purchase,  as  they  think,  not  livings 
in  the  Church  below,  but,  what  is  far  pre- 
ferable, seats  in  the  Church  above,  and  good 
places  at  the  heavenly  court. 

Was  ever  a  robe  of  righteousness — I  had 
almost  said  a  fool's  coat — so  coarsely  woven 
by  the  slaves  of  impostm'e  and  avarice !  And 
so  dearly  bought  by  the  sons  of  superstition 
and  credulity ! 

O,  ye  spiritual  Ethiopians,  who  paint 
yourselves  all  over  with  the  corroding  white 
of  hypocrisy,  and,  after  all,  are  artful  enough 
to  lay  on  red  paint,  and  imitate  the  blush 
of  humble  modesty — ye  that  borrow  virtue's 
robes  to. procure  admiration,  and  put  on  re- 
ligion's cloak  to  hide  your  sliameful  deform- 
ity— ^ye  that  deal  in  external  righteousness, 
to  carry  on.  with  better  success  the  most 
sordid  of  all  trades,  that  of  sin ;  of  the  worst 
of  sins,  pride ;  of  the  worst  of  pride,  which 
is  spiritual — ^ye  numerous  followers  of  those 
whom  the  prophet  of  Christians  called 
crafty  serpents,  and  soft  brood  of  vipers — 


158  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PART  IV. 

ye  to  whom  he  declared  that  publicans  and 
harlots  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  hea- 
ven before  you ;  if  I  call  you  in  last  to  prove 
the  desperate  wickedness  of  the  human 
heart,  it  is  not  because  1  esteem  you  the 
weakest  advocates  of  the  truth  I  contend  for, 
but  because  you  really  are  the  strongest  of 
my  witnesses. 

And  now,  candid  reader,  forget  not  plain 
matter  of  fact,  recollect  the  evidence  given 
by  reason,  pass  sentence  upon  these  last  ar- 
guments which  I  have  offered  to  thy  consid- 
eration, and  say,  whether  man's  disposition 
and  conduct  to  his  Creator,  his  fellow-crea- 
tures, and  himself,  do  not  abundantly  prove 
that  he  is  by  nature  in  a  fallen  and  lost  es- 
tate. 


FOURTH  PART. 


The  preceding  arguments  recommend 
themselves  to  the  common  sense  of  think- 
ing heathens,  and  the  conscience  of  reason- 
able Deists,  as  being  all  taken  from  those 
two  amazing  volumes,  which  are  open  and 
legible  to  all — the  world  and  man.  The 
following  are  taken  from  a  third  volume, 
the  Bible,  despised  by  the  wits  of  the  age, 
merely  because  they  study  and  understand 
it  even  less  than  the  other  two. 


PAJRT  IV.]  MATTER    OF   FACT.  169 


THIRTY-FIRST     ARGUMENT. 

The  spiritual  life  of  the  soul  consists  in  its 
union  with  God,  as  the  natural  life  of  the 
body  does  in  its  union  with  the  soul :  and 
as  poison  and  the  sword  kill  the  latter,  so 
unbelief  and  sin  destroy  the  former. 

The  fii-st  man  was  endued  with  this  two- 
fold life.  God,  says  the  divine  historian, 
breathed  into  him  the  brtath  of  life,  and 
he  became  a  living  body  and  a  living  soul ; 
he  had  both  an  annual  life  in  common  with 
beasts  and  a  spiritual  life  in  common  with 
angels.  St.  Paul,  who  calls  this  angelical 
life  the  life  of  God,  intimates  that  it  consist- 
ed both  in  that  experimental  knowledge  of 
our  Creator,  wherein  "  standeth  our  eternal 
life,^'  and  in  righteousness  and  true  holiness, 
the  moral  and  most  glorious  image  of  the 
Supreme  Being. 

To  suppose  man  was  created  void  of  this 
essential  knowledge  and  holy  love,  is  to 
suppose  he  came  very  wicked  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  Parent  of  all  good  ;  for  what 
is  a  rational  creatare  that  neither  knows  nor 
loves  his  Creator,  but  a  monster  of  stupidity 
and  ingratitude,  a  wretch  actually  dead  to 
God,  and  deserving  present  destruction  ? 

When  the  Lord  therefore  said  to  man,  in 
the  day  that  thou  eatest  thereof,  that  is,  in 
tiie  day  that  thou  sinnest,  thou  ghalt  surely 


160  AN    APPEAL    TO  [PAET  IV. 

die,  it  was  as  if  ho  had  said,  ''  in  that  very 
day  sin  shall  assuredly  separate  betweei 
thee  and  the  God  of  thy  life ;  thou  shalt  cer- 
tainly lose  the  glorious  view  which  thou 
nast  of  my  boundless  goodness  and  and 
infinite  perfections ;  thou  shalt  infallibly 
quench  the  spirit  of  ardent  love,  and  stop 
the  breath  of  delightful  praise,  by  which 
thou  livest  both  to  my  glory  and  thy  com- 
fort ;  and  thy  soul,  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins,  shall  remain  in  the  filthy  prison  of  a 
mortal  body,  till  death  breaks  it  open,  to 
remove  thee  to  thy  own  place." 

And  was  not  this  Adam's  case  after  his 
fall  'i  Did  he  not  know  that  he  was  naked 
— stripped  of  the  glorious  image  of  his  Cre- 
ator? Did  not  guilty  shame  immediately 
prompt  him  to  hide  and  protect,  as  well  as 
he  could,  his  degenerate  and  enfeebled  body  ? 
Devoid  of  the  ardent  love  he  felt  for  God 
before,  and  of  the  pure  delight  he  enjoyed  in 
him,  was  not  he  left  the  wretched  prey  of 
tormenting  fears  ?  Did  he  not  evidence  his 
hatred  of  his  heavenly  Benefactor,  by  dread- 
ing his  voice,  and  flying  from  him  as  hasti- 
ly as  he  should  have  fled  from  the  infernal 
serpent  ? 

Was  he  not  deprived  of  the  knowledge  by 
which,  at  fii-st  sight,  he  discovered  the  na- 
ture of  Eve,  and  gave  to  all  living  creatures 
names  expressive  of  their  respective  proper- 
ties ?    Was  he  not,  I  say,  deprived  of  that 


PAiar  IV.j  MATTER   OF   FACT.  161 

intuitive  knowledge  and  excellent  wisdom, 
when  he  foolishly  hid  himself  among  the 
trees  from  his  all-seeing,  omnipresent  Crea- 
tor ?  And  is  it  not  evident  that  he  was  lost 
to  all  sense  of  filial  fear  toward  God,  and 
conjugal  love  toward  E^'e,  when,  instead  of 
self-accusations,  penitential  confessions,  and 
earnest  pleas  for  mercy,  he  showed  nothing 
■at  his  trial  but  stubbornness,  malice,  and  in- 
solence ? 

Such  was  the  state  of  corruption  into 
which  Adam  had  deplorably  fallen,  before 
he  multiplied  the  human  species.  Now,  ac- 
cording to  the  invariable  laws  of  Provi- 
dence, an  upright,  holy  nature  can  no  more 
proceed  from  a  fallen,  sinful  one,  than 
gentle  lambs  can  be  begotten  by  fierce 
tigers,  or  harmless  doves  b}^  venomous  ser- 
pents. Common  sense,  therefore,  and  natural 
philosophy,  dictate  that  our  first  parents 
could  not  communicate  the  angelical  life 
which  they  had  lost,  nor  impart  to  their 
children  a  better  nature  than  their  own,  and 
that  their  depravity  is  as  much  ours  by  na- 
ture, as  the  fierceness. of  the  first  lion  is  the 
natural  property  of  all  the  lions  in  the 
world. 

FOUR    OBJECTIONS. 

I.  Should  it  be  said,  that  "  this  doctrine 
reflects  on  the  attributes  of  God,  who,  as 
the  wise  •  and  gracious   Governor   of   the 

11 


162  AN    Al'PEAL   TO  [PART  tV 

world,  should  have  foreseen  and  prevented 
the  fall  of  Adam." 

I  answer,  1.  God  made  man  in  his  image, 
part  of  which  consists  in  free  agency,  or  a 
power  to  determine  his  own  actions.  And 
if  creating  a  free  agent  is  not  repngnant  to 
Divine  wisdom  and  goodness,  the  wrong 
choice,  or  sin  of  a  free  agent,  can  be  no 
impeachment  of  those  perfections  in  th<^ 
Deity.* 

*  God  answers  thus  for  himself  in  Milton  : 

Man  will  fall, 
He  and  his  faithless  progeny.     Whose  fault  ? 
Whose  but  his  own  V     Ingvate  !  he  had  of  me 
All  he  could  have  :  I  made  him  just  and  right ; 
Sufficient  to  have  stood,  though  free  to  fall. 
Such  I  created  all  th'  ethereal  powers  : 
Freely  they  stood  who  stood,  and  fell  who  fell. 
Not  free,  what  proof  could  they  have  given  sincere 
Of  true  allegia.nce,  constant  faith  or  love. 
Where  only  what  they  needs  must  do  appear'd  ; 
Not  what  they  would  ?   What  praise  could  they  receive  ? 
What  pleasure  I  from  such  obedience  paid, 
When  will  and  reason,  (reason  also  is  choice,) 
Useless  and  vain,  of  freedom  both  despoiled. 
Made  passive  both,  had  served  necessity, 
Not  me  ?     They,  therefore,  as  to  right  belong'd 
So  were  created,  nor  can  justly,  accuse 
Their  Maker,  or  their  making,  or  their  fate. 
As  if  predestination  overruled 
Their  will,  disposed  by  absolute  decree, 
Or  high  foreknowledge.     They  themselves  decreed 
Their  own  revolt,  not  I  :  if  I  foreknew. 
Fore  knowledge  had  no  influence  on  their  fault, 
Which  had  no  less  proved  certain  unforeknown. 

Young  expresses  the  same  sentiment,  with  his  pecu- 
liar boldness  and  energy. 


l*ARt   IV.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  16^ 

2.  Suppose  man  liad  not  b^en  endued 
with  freedom  of  choice,  he  would  only  have 
ranked  among  admirable  machines,  and 
nothing  could  liave  been  more  absurd  than 
to  place  him  in  a  state  of  probation.  And 
suppose,  when  he  was  in  that  state  divine 
Power  had  irresistibly  turned  the  scale  of 
his  will  to  obedience,  the  trial  w^ould  have 
been  prevented,  and  the  counsel  of  divine 
"Wisdom  foolishly  defeated. 

3.  God  did  all  that  a  wise  and  good  rulet 
of  rational  and  free  creatures  could  do  to 
prevent  sin.  He  placed  in  Adam's  heart  a 
vigorous  principle  of  holiness  ;  he  gi'anted 
him  sufficient  strength  to  continue  in  obedi- 
ence: he  indulged  him  with  his  blessed 
presence  and  converse  to  encourage  him  in 
the  way  of  duty  ;  he  strictly  forbade  him  to 
sin  ;  he  enforced  the  prohibition  by  the  fear- 
ful threatening  of  death  ;  he  promised  to 
crown  his  continuance  in  holiness  with  a 


Blame  not  the  bowels  of  the  Deity  : 
Man  shall  be  bless'd  as  far  as  man  permits. 
Not  man  alone,  all  ratioj)als,  Heaven  arms 
With  an  illustrious,  but  tremendous  power, 
To  counteract  its  own  most  gracious  ends  ; 
And  this  of  strict  necessity,  not  choice  ; 
That  power  denied,  man,  angels  were  no  more 
but  passive  engines,  void  of  praise  or  blame. 
Heaven  wills  our  happiness,  allows  our  doom  : 
Invites  us  ardently,  but  not  compels  : 
Heaven  but  persuades,  almighty  man  decrees  ; 
Man  is  the  maker  of  immortal  fates, 
Man  falls  by  man,  if  finally  he  falls 


164  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PAET  IV^ 

glorious  immortality,  and  gave  him  the  tree 
of  life  as  a  pledge  of  this  inestimable  bless- 
ing. .  To  have  gone  farther  would  have  been 
entirely  inconsistent  with  his  wisdom ;  an 
absolute  restraint  being  as  contrars^  to  the 
liberty  of  a  moral  agent,  and  the  nature  of 
the  divine  law,  as  chaining  down  a  harm- 
less mail  that  he  may  not  commit  murdef, 
is  contrary  to  the  freedom  of  Englishmen, 
and  the  laws  of  this  realm.  ]Nor  can  we, 
either  with  reason  or  decency,  complain  that 
God.  did  not  make  us  absolutely  immutable 
and  perfect  like  himself;  this  is  charging 
him  with  folly,  for  not  enduing  us  with  in- 
finite wisdom,  and  knowledge  every  way 
boundless  ;  that  is,  for  not  making  us  gods 
instead  of  men. 

4.  In  case  man  fell.  Divine  mercy  had 
decreed  his  recovery  by  Jesus  Christ ;  and 
when  the  Almighty  Redeemer  shall  have 
brought  life  out  of  death,  and  light  out  of 
darkness,  the  mysterious  drama  of  creation 
and  redemption,  of  which  we  see  but  one  or 
two  acts,  will  appear,  even  to  our  objectors, 
every  way  worthy  of  its  infinitely-wise  and 
gracious  Author. 

II.  In  the  meantime,  they  will  still  urge 
that  "  Adam's  posterity  [then  unborn]  could 
not  justly  partake  of  the  consequences  of 
his  transgression."  But  shall  cavils  over* 
throw  matter  of  fact?  Do  not  we  see  in 
every  unrenewed  person,  the  unbelief,  pride^ 


PART  IV.]  MArrER   OF    FACT.  165 

sinful  curiosity,  sensuality,  and  alienation 
from  God,  to  which  our  lirst  parents  were 
subjected  at  their  fall  ?  Do  not  women  tear 
children  -^ith  sorrow  as  well  as  Eve  ?  Is  the 
ground  less  cursed  lor  us  than  for  Adam ; 
and  do  we  not  toil,  suffer,  and  die,  as  he 
did?  If  this  order  of  things  were  unjust, 
would  the  righteous  God  have  permitted  its 
continuance  to  the  present  time  ? 

Besides,  Adam  contained  in  himself,  as 
in  miniature,  all  his  posterity.  The  various 
nations  of  men  are  nothing  but  different 
branches  growing  from  that  original  root. 
They  are  Adam,  or  man,  existing  at  large ; 
as  the  branches  of  a  spreading  oak,  with  all 
the  acorns  that  have  grown  upon,  and  drop- 
ped  from  them,  during  a  long  succession  of 
summers, -are  nothing  but  the  original  acorn, 
unfolding  and  multiplying  itself  with  all  its 
essential  properties.  It  is,  then,  as  ridicu- 
lous to  w^onder  that  t4rc  sons  of  depraved 
Adam  should  naturally  be  depraved,  as  that 
an  acorn  should  naturally  produce  an  oak, 
and  a  poisonous  root  a  malignant  plant. 
Again : 

Adam  was  the  general  head,  representa- 
tive, and  father  of  mankind  ;  and  w^e  suffer 
for  his  rebellion  legally  ;  as  the  children  of 
those  who  have  sold  themselves  for  slaves 
are  born  in  a  state  of  wretched  slavery  ;  and 
as  the  descendants  of  a  noble  traitor  lose 
the  title  by  their  ancestor's  crime ;  naturally, 


166  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PART  IV. 

as  the  sons  of  a  bankrupt  suffer  poverty  for 
their  father's  extravagance,  or  as  Gehazi's 
leprosy  clave  to  him  and  his  seed  forever ; 
and  unavoidably,  as  an  unborn  cl\ild  shares 
the  fate  of  his  unhappy  mother,  when  she 
inadvertently  poisons,  or  desperately  stabs 
herself. 

III.  "  But,"  say  the  same  objectors,  sup- 
posing it  be  granted,  that  we  are  naturally 
depraved,  yet,  if  our  depravity  is  natural,  it 
is  necessary ;  and  we  are  no  more  blamal3le 
for  it  than  lions  for  their  fierceness,  or  Ethi' 
opians  for  their  black  complexion." 

1.  Our  objectors  would  not,  I  presume,  be 
understood  to  insinuate,  by  blamable,"  that 
our  depravity  does  not  render  us  detestable 
in  the  eyes  of  a  holy  God,  or  that  it  is  not 
in  itselt  blameworthy.  Do  they  less  dislike 
the  complexion  of  the  Ethiopians,  or  less 
detest  the  destructive  rage  of  lions,  because 
it  is  natm'al  to  them  ?-  If  moral  dispositions 
ceased  to  be  worthy  of  praise  or  dispraise  as 
soon  as  they  are  rooted,  morally  necessary, 
and  in  that  sense  natural,  what  absurd  con 
sequences  would  follow  ?  Sinners  would  be 
come  guiltless  by  arriving  at  complete  im 
penitency ;  and  God  could  not  be  praised 
for  his  holiness,  nor  satan  dispraised  for  hia 
sinfulness — holiness  being  as  essential  to 
God,  by  the  absolute  perfection  of  his  na 
ture,  as  sin  is  morally  necessary  to  the  devil 
by  the  unconquerable  habit  which  he  ha* 


PART  IV.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  167 

willfiilly  contracted,  and  in  which  he  obsti- 
nately remains. 

2.  Should  they  mean,  that  "  we  are  not 
answerable,  or  accountable  for  our  deprav- 
ity," I  reply,  though  1  grant — which  I  am 
very  far  from  doing  * — that  we  are  no  way 
accountable  for  our  moral  infection,  yet  it 
can  not  be  denied  tl lat  we  are  answerable  for 
our  obstinate  refusal  of  relief,  and  for  the 
willful  neglect  of  the  means  found  out  by 
Divine  mercy  for  our  cure.  Can  we  justly 
charge  God  with  either  our  misfortune  or 
our  guilt  ?  Do  not  parents,  by  the  law  of 
nature,  represent  their  unborn  posterity  ?  K 
Adam  ruined  us  by  a  common  transgression, 
has  not  Christ,  the  second  Adam,  provided 
for  us  a  common  salvation?  Jude  3:  Heb. 
ii.  3.     If,  by  the  offense  of  one,  [Adam,] 

*  We  can  easily  conceive  how  all  men  can  be  involved 
in  tlie  consequences  of  Adam's  sin,  so  as  to  possess  a 
depraved  nature,  inclined  only  to  evil  -without  the  grace 
of  God  ;  but  cannot  receive  the  idea  that  personal  guilt 
can  be  attached  to  any  man  for  an  act  which  transpired 
before  he  was  born.  "  This  is  the  condemnation  ;  that 
light  has  come  into  the  world,  and  men  love  darkness 
rather  than  light."  Man's  guilt  and  final  ruin  are 
wholly  in  consequence  9f  his  own  act,  in  obstinately 
rejecting  the  only  saving  remedy.  Hence,  strictly  speak- 
ing, no  one  can  be  "  accountable  for  his  depravity  "  un- 
til he  voluntarily  endorses  it  by  preferring  it  to  the 
righteousness  of  Christ.  By  rejecting  the  offer  of  the 
gospel  to  pardon  his  sins  and  to  cleanse  him  from  all 
unrighteousness,  he  becomes  accountable,  not  oidy  for 
his  sinful  acts,  but  for  the  indwelling  disposition  which 
prompts  to  the  acts.  He  might  have  a  clean  heart  and 
a  right  spirit,  but  he  pref'^rs  the  old  depraved  nature. — 
Ed.  of  Rev.  Edition. 


168  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PART  IV. 

judgment  came  upon  all  men  to  condemna- 
tion, by  the  righteousness  of  one,  [Christ, } 
is  not  the  free  gift  come  upon  all  men  to 
justification  of  life?  Rom.  v.  18.  And 
since  God  has  declared  that  the  son  shall 
bear  the  iniquity  of  the  father  beyond  the 
short  period  of  this  transitory  life,  if  any 
sufier  after  death,  is  it  not  entirely  for  their 
unbelief  and  peculiar  sins?*  Compare 
John  iii.  18,  19,  and  Mark  xiv.  16.  But 
what  follows  completely  vindicates  our  Cre- 
ator's goodness. 

3.  Do  sin  and  misery  abound  by  our  fall 
in  Adam  ?  Grace  and  glory  abound  much 
more  by  our  own  redemption  in  Jesus 
Christ.  Rom.  t.  20.  And  ''it  mu«t  be 
owing  to  our  own  perverseness,  or  our  own 
negligence" — says  the  ingenius  Hervey, 
with  great  truth — ^"if  we  do  not  levy  a  tax 

*  Milton  introduces  God  speaking  thus  to  the  Mes- 
siah: 

Man  shall  not  quite  be  lost,  but  saved  who  wilU 
Yet  not  of  will  in  him,  but  grace  in  me 
Freely  vouchsafed  :  once  more  I  will  renew 
His  lapsed  powers — ^yet  once  more  he  shall  stand 
On  even  ground  against  his  mortal  foe. 
By  me  upheld.     Be  thou  in  Adam's  room 
Tlie  head  of  all  mankind,  though  Adam's  son. 
As  in  him  perish  all  men,  so  in  thee, 
As  from  a  second  root,  shall  be  restored, 
As  many  as  are  restored,  without  thee  none. 
His  crimes  make  guilty  all  his  sons  ;  thy  merit 
Imputed  shall  absolve  them,  M^ho  renounce 
Their  own  both  righteous  and  unrighteous  deeds^ 
And  live  in  thee  trans|)lanted,  and  ftom  thee 
Receive  new  life. 


PART  IV.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  169 

apon  our  loss,  and  rise  even  by  our  fall."* 
This  leaves  us  not  the  least  shadow  of  reason 
to  complain  of  the  Divine  proceedings  re- 
specting  us. 

We  may,  then,  conclude  that  a  moral  de- 
pravity, which  comes  upon  us  by  the  willful 
choice  of  a  parent,  in  whom  we  seminally 
and  federally  existed — a  depravity  which 
cleaves  to  us  by  an  obstinate  neglect  of  the 
infinitely  precious  means  provided  to  remove 
it — a  depravity  \\^ich  works  now  by  our 
own  personal  choice,  and  to  which  we  daily 
give  our  assent  by  the  free  commission  of 
Bins  that  are  avoidable,  leaves  us  not  only 
accountable,  but  inexcusable  before  God. 

ly .  However,  the  advocates  for  the  nat- 
ural purity  of  the  human  race — endeavoring 
to  clog  with  difficulties  what  they  can  not 
disprove  to  be  matter  of  fact- — still  assert, 
"As  we  have  our  souls  immediately  from 
God,  if  we  are  born  sinful,  he  must  either 
create  sinful  souls,  which  cannot  be  suppos- 
ed without  impiety,  or  send  sinless  souls  into 
sinful  bodies,  to  be  defiled  by  the  unhappy 
union,   which   is  as  inconsistent  with   his 

*  Creation's  great  superior,  man,  is  thine  : 
Thine  is  Redemption.     How  should  this  great  truth 
Raise  man  o'er  man,  and  kindle  seraphs  here! 
Redemption  !     'Twas  Creation  more  sublime : 
Redemption  !     'Twas  the  labor  of  the  skies  : 
Far  more  than  labor — it  was  death  in  heaven. 
A  truth  so  strange  !     'Twere  bold  to  think  it  true ; 
If  not  far  bolder  still  to  disbelieve.^youNo. 


170  AN    APPEAL    TO  [part  IV. 

goodoess  as  his  justice.  Add  to  this,"  say 
the  objectors,  ''that  nothing  can  be  more 
unphilosophical  than  to  suppose  that  a  body, 
a  mere  lump  of  organized  matter,  is  able  to 
communicate  to  a  spirit  that  moral  pollution 
of  which  itself  is  as  incapable  as  the  mur- 
derer's sword  is  incapaJjle  of  cruelty." 

This  specious  objection,  which  Dr.  Watts 
acknowledges  to  be  "  the  very  chief  point 
of  difficulty  in  all  the  controversies  about 
original  sin,"  is  wholly  founded  upon  the 
vulgar  notion,  that  we  have  our  souls  imme- 
diately from  God  by  infusion ;  it  will  there- 
fore entirely  fall  to  the  ground,  if  we  prove 
that  we  receive  them,  as  well  as  well  as  our 
bodies,  by  traduction  Irom  Adam ;  and  that 
this  is  a  tact,  appears,  if  I  am  not  mistaken, 
by  the  following  arguments  : 

1."  We  have  no  ground,  from  Scripture 
or  reason,  to  think  that  adulterers  can,  when 
they  please,  put  God  upon  creating  new 
souls  to  animate  the  spurious  fruit  of  their 
crime.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  said  that  God 
rested  on  the  seventh  day  from  all  his  work 
of  creation. 

2.  Eve  herself  was  not  created  but  in  Ad- 
am ;  God  breathed  no  breath  of  life  into  her, 
as  he  did  into  her  husband,  to  make  him  a  liv- 
ing soul.  Therefore,  when  Adam  saw  her, 
he  said,  she  shall  be  called  woman,  because 
she — her  whole  self,  not  her  body  only^ 
was  taken  out  of  man.     If  then,  the  soul  of 


PART  IV.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  171 

the  first  woman  sprang  from  Adam's  soul, 
as  her  body  from  his  body,  what  reason  have 
we  to  believe  that  the  souls  of  her  posterity 
are  immediately  infused,  as  Adam's  was 
when  God  created  him  ? 

3.  All  agree  that,  under  God,  we  receive 
life  from  our  parents ;  and  if  life,  then  cer- 
tainlv  our  soul,  which  is  the  principle  of 
life.  " 

4.  Other  animals  have  power  to  propa- 
gate their  own  species  after  its  kind ;  they 
can  generate  animated  bodies.  Why  should 
man  be  but  half  a  father  ?  When  did  God 
stint  him  to  propagate  the  mere  shell  of  his 
person,  the  body  without  the  soul?  Was  it 
when  he  blessed  him,  and  said.  Be  ye  fruit- 
ful and  multiply?  When  he  spoke  thus, 
did  he  not  address  himself  to  the  soul,  as 
well  as  to  the  body?  ,  Can  the  body,  alone, 
either  understand  or  execute  a  comm^and? 
Is  it  not,  on  the  contrary,  highly  reasonable 
to  conclude,  that  by  virtue  of  the  Divine 
appointment  and  blessing,  the  whole  man 
can  be  fruitful  and  multiply,  and  the  soul, 
under  proper  circumstances,  can  generate 
a  soul,  as  a  thought  begets  a  thought ;  and 
can  kindle  the  flame  of  life,  as  one  taper 
lights  another,  without  weiakening  its  im- 
mortal substance,  any  more  than  God  the 
Father — if  I  may  be  allowed  the  compari- 
son— impairs  the  Divine  essence  by  the 
eternal  generation  of  his  only-begotten  Son? 


172  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PABT  IV. 

5.  Does  not  matter  of  fact  corroborate  the 
preceding  argument?  A  sprightly  race- 
horse generally  begets  a  mettlesome  colt; 
while  a  heavy  cart-horse  begets  a  colt  that 
bears  the  stamp  of  its  sire's  dullness.  And 
is  it  not  so  with  mankind  in  general?  The 
children  of  the  Hottentots  and  Esquimaux 
are  commonly  as  stupid,  while  those  of  the 
English  and  French  are  usuall}^  as  sharp,  as 
their  parents.  You  seldom  see  a  wit  spring- 
ing fi'om  two  half-witted  people,  or  a  fool 
descended  from  very  sensible  parents.  The 
children  of  men  of  genius  are  frequently  as 
remarkable  for  some  branch  of  hereditary 
genius,  as  those  of  blockheads  for  their  na- 
tive stupidity.  Nothing  is  more  common^ 
than  to  see  very  passionate  and  flighty  pa- 
rents have  very  passionate  and  flighty  chil- 
dren. And  I  have  a  hundred  times  discov- 
ered, not  only  the  features,  look,  and  com- 
plexion, of  a  father  and  mother  in  the  child's 
lace,  but  seen  a  congenial  soul  looking  out, 
— if  I  may  so  speak — at  those  windows  of 
the  body  which  we  call  the  eyes.  Hence  I 
conclude  that  the  advice  frequently  given 
to  those  who  are  about  to  choose  a  com- 
panion for  life,  ''Take  care  of  the  breed,"  is 
not  absolutely  without  foundation,  although 
some  lay  too  much  stress  upon  it,  forgetting 
that  a  thousand  unknown  accidents  may 
form  exceptions  to  the  general  rale,  and 
not  considering  that  the  peculiarity  of  the 


TAET  IV.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  1^3 

father's  breed  may  be  happily  corrected  by 
tliat  of  the  mother,  and  vice  versa;  and 
that  as  the  grace  of  God,  yielded  to,  may 
sweeten  the  worst  temper,  so  sin,  persisted 
in,  may  sour  the  best. 

C).  Again:  Moses  informs  us,  that  fallen 
Adam  begat  a  son  in  his  own  likeness  and 
after  his  image ;  but  had  he  generated  a 
body  without  a  soul,  he  would  not  have  be- 
gotten a  son  in  his  own  likeness,  since  he 
was  not  a  mere  mortal  body,  but  a  fallen 
embodied  spirit-.  Compare  Gen.  v.  3,  with 
Xlvi.  26. 

^'Butupon  this  scheme,''  will  objectors 
say,  "if  Adam  was  converted  when  he  be- 
gat a  son,  he  begat  a  converted  soul."  This 
does  by  no  means  follow;  for  ii'  he  was 
born  of  God  after  his  fall,  it  was  by  grace 
through  faith,  and  not  by  nature  through 
generation ;  he  could  not,  therefore,  com- 
municate his  spiritual  regeneration  by  nat- 
ural generation,  any  more  than  a  great 
scholar  can  propagate  his  learning  together 
with  his  species. 

Should  it  be  again  objected,  that  the  soul 
is  not  generated,  because  the  Scriptures  de- 
clare, '*  The  Lord  is  tlie  Father  of  the  spirits 
of  all  flesh,  and  the  spirit  returns  to  God 
who  gave  it,"  I  answer,  it  is  also  written, 
that  Job  and  David  were  "  fearfully  made 
and  fashioned  by  the  hands  of  God  in  the 
womb;''  that  he  ''formed  Jeremiah  in  the 


174:  AN   Al*PEAL   TO  [PAKT   iv. 

belly;"  and  that  "we  are  tlie  offspring  of 
him  who  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of 
men."  IsTow,  if  the  latter  Scriptures  do  not 
exclude  the  interposition  of  parents  in  the 
formation  of  their  children's  bodies,  by 
what  rule  of  criticism  or  divinity  can  we 
prove,  that  the  former  exclude  that  interpo^ 
sition  in  the  production  of  their  souls  ? 

]^or  can  materialists,  who  have  no  ideas 
of  generation,  but  such  as  are  gross  and  car- 
nal like  their  own  system,  with  any  shadow 
of  reason  infer,  that  ''if  the  soul  is  genera^ 
ted  with  the  body,  it  will  also  perish  with 
it;"  for  dissolution  is  so  far  fi-om  being  a 
necessary  consequence  of  the  spiritual  gen- 
eration of  souls,  that  it  would  not  so  much 
as  have  followed  the  genei-ation  of  our  bo- 
dies, if  Adam  had  not  brouglit  ''sin  into 
the  world,  and  death  by  sin."  Again:  if 
wheat,  a  material  seed  which  grows  out  of 
the  same  earthly  clod  with  the  chaff  that 
incloses  it,  can  subsist  unimpaired,  when 
that  mean  cover  is  destroyed,  how  much 
more  can  the  soul — that  spiritual,  vital, 
heavenly  power,  which  is  of  a  nature  so 
vastly  superior  to  the  body  in  which  it  is 
confined — continue  to  exist,  when  flesh  and 
blood  are  returned  to  their  native  dust ! 

Should  some  persons  reject  what  1  say  of 
the  traduction  of  souls,  in  order  to  illustrate 
the  derivation  of  original  sin,  and  should 
they  say  that  they  have  no  mor-e  idea  of  the 


PAUT  IV. 1  MATTER   OF   FACT.  17^ 

generation  than  lionest  Nicodemus  had  of 
the  regeneration  of  a  spirit,  I  beg  leave  to 
observe  two  things : 

First:  If  snch  objectors  are  converted, 
they  will  not  deny  the  regeneration  of  souls 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  since  they  experienced 
it,  and  our  Lord  speaks  of  it  as  a  blessed 
reality,  even  while  he  represents  it  as  a 
mystery  unknown  as  to  the  manner  of  it. — ' 
John  iii.  8-13.  Now,  if  pious  souls  have 
been  regenerated  I'rom  the  beginning  of  the 
world,  without  exactly  knowing  how,  is  it 
reasonable  to  deny  that  souls  are  generated, 
merely  because  we  can  not  exactly  account 
for  the  manner  in  which  that  wonder  takes 
place? 

Second:  Should  my  objectors  be  versed- 
in  natural  philosophy,  they  need  not  be 
told,  that  even  the  kind  of  generation  which 
they  allow  is  as  much  a  mystery  to  man,  as 
the  movement  of  a  watch  is  to  a  child  that 
just  sees  the  case  and  the  glass.  If  they 
will  not  believe  me,  let  them  believe  him 
who  ''  gave  his  heart  to  search  out  by  wis- 
dom coDcei'iiing  all  things  that  are  done 
under  heaveu ;"  and  who,  touching  upon 
our  question,  says,  "  As  thou  knowest  not 
what  is  the  w^ay  of  the  Spirit,  nor  how  the 
bones  do  grow  in  the  womb  of  her  that  is 
with  child ;  even  so  thou  knowest  not  the 
works  of  God,  who  maketh  all."  Eccles 
xi.  5. 


176  AN   APPEAL    TO  [PARt   IV. 

For  my  part,  I  do  not  see  why  the  same 
almighty  Preserver  of  men,  who — as  St, 
Paul  tells  us — "  made  of  one  hlood  the  bo- 
dies of  ail  nations  of  men,"  might  not,  of 
one  active  thought  and  ardent  desire^  have 
made  the  souls  of  all  nations  of  men  also. 
Have  n.ot  thought  and  desii-e  as  great  affin- 
ity to  the  nature  of  the  soul  as  blood  has  to 
that  of  the  body?  And,  consequently,  are 
not  our  ideas  of  the  traduction  of  the  soul 
as  clear  as  those  which  we  can  form  of  the 
generation  of  tlie  body  ? 

Having  dwslt  so  long  upon  the  manner 
in  which  mankind  naturally  propagate  orig- 
inal corruption  together  with  their  whole 
species,  I  hope  I  may  reasonably  resume 
the  conclusion  of  my  argument,  and  affirm, 
that  if  Adam  corrupted  the  fountain  of  hu- 
man nature  in  himself,  we,  the  streams,  can 
not  but  be  naturally  corrupted. 

THIRTY-SECOND   ARGUMENT. 

• 

God  being  a  spirit,  reason  and  revelation 
jointly  inform  us,  that  his  law  is  spiritual, 
and  extends  to  our  thoughts  and  tempers, 
as  well  as  to  our  words  and  actions.  At 
all  times,  and  in  all  places,  it  forbids  every 
thing  that  is  sinful,  or  has  the  least  ten- 
dency to  sin ;  it  commands  all  that  is  ex- 
cellent, and  enjoins  it  to  be  done  in  the  ut- 
most perfection  of  our  dispensation. 

Therefore,  if  we  have  not  always  trusted 


PART  IV. J  MATTER   OF   FACT.  l77 

and  delighted  in  God  more  than  in  all 
things  and  persons ;  if  for  one  instant  we 
have  loved  or  feared  the  creature  more  than 
the  Creator,  we  have  had  another  god  be- 
sides the  Lord.  Col.  iii.  5 ;  Phil.  iii.  19. — 
Have  we  once  omitted  to  adore  him  in  spi- 
rit and  in  tnith  inwardly,  or  at  any  time 
worshiped  him  without  becoming  venera- 
tion outwardly,  we  have  transgressed  as  if 
we  had  bowed  to  a  graven  image.  John  iv. 
24.  Though  perjury  and  imprecations 
should  never  have  defiled  our  lips,  yet,  if 
ever  we  mentioned  God's  tremendous  name 
thoughtlessly,  or  irreverently,  in  prayer, 
reading,  or  conversation,  we  have  taken  it 
in  vain,  and  the  Searcher  of  hearts  will  not 
hold  us  guiltless.  Phil.  ii.  10.  And  if  it 
has  not  been  our  constant  practice  and  de- 
light to  enter  his  courts  with  praise,  and 
spend  the  whole  Sabbath  in  his  blessed  ser- 
vice, we  have  polluted  that  sacred  day,  and 
the  guilt  of  profaneness  may  justly  be 
charged  upon  us.     Isaiah  Iviii.  13. 

Did  we  ever  show  any  disrespect  to  our 
superiors,  or  unkindness  to  our  equals  and 
inferiors,  we  have  violated  the  precept  that 
commands  us  to  honor  all  men,  and  be 
punctual  in  the  discharge  of  all  social  and 
relative  duties.  1  Pet.  ii.  17.  Did  we  ever 
weaken  our  constitution  by  excess,  strike 
our  neighbor  in  anger,  or  wound  his  char- 
acter with  an  iniurious  word,  or  only  suffer 
12 


178  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PAET  W 

hatred  to  rise  in  our  breast  against  him,  we 
have  committed  a  species  of  murder;  for, 
"whosoever  shall  say  to  his  brother,  Thou 
fool,  shall  be  in  danger  of  hell  fire;"  and 
"whosoever  hateth  his  brother  is  a  murder- 
er. Matt.  v.  22;  1  John  ii.  15.  Are  we 
"the  friends  of  the  world,"  an  apostle 
brands  us  with  the  name  of  adulterers,  be- 
cause we  are  false  to  our  heavenly  bride- 
groom. James  iv.  4.  And  if  we  liave  only 
"looked  on  a  woman  to  lust  after  her," 
Christ  declares  that  we  "  have  committed 
adulteiy  with  her  already  in  our  heart. — 
Matt.  V.  28.  Have  we  overcharged  our  cus- 
tomers, exacted  upon  any  one  in  our  bar- 
tains,  insisted  on  a  full  salary  for  work 
one  by  halves,  defrauded  the  king  of  any 
part  of  his  taxes,  or  taken  advantage  of  the 
necessity  and  ignorance  of  others  to  get  by 
their  loss,  we  swell  the  numerous  tribe  of 
reputable  thieves  and  genteel  robbers. — 
Matt.  xxii.  21.  Neglecting  to  keep  our 
word  and  baptismal  vow,  or  speaking  an 
untruth,  is  "bearing  false  witness  against 
our  neighbor,"  ourselves,  or  Christ,  who 
styles  himself  "the  truth."  Kev.  xxii.  15. 
And  giving  place  to  a  fretful,  discontented 
thought,  or  an  irregular,  envious  desire,  is 
a  breach  of  that  spiritual  precept,  which 
madt!  St.  Paul  say,  "  I  had  not  known  lust," 
or  a  wrong  desire  to  be  sin,  "except  the 
law  had  said,  Thou  shalt  not  covet."  Ro- 
mans vii.  7. 


Tart  iv.]  matter  of  fact.  179 

Such  beiDg  the  extreme  spirituality  of  the 
law,  who  can  plead  that  he  never  was  guilty 
ot  breaking  one,  or  even  all  of  the  ten  com- 
mandments ? 

And  if  we  have  broken  them  all,  either  in 
their  literal  or  spiritual  meaning,  and  are 
threatened  for  every  transgression  with  a 
curse  suitable  to  the  Lawgiver's  infinite 
majesty,  who  can  conceive  the  greatness  of 
our  guilt  and  danger?  Till  we  find  a  sanc- 
tuary under  the  shadow  of  a  Savior's  wings, 
are  we  not  as  liable  to  the  strokes  of  divine 
vengeance  as  a  felon,  guilty  of  breaking  all 
the  statutes  of  his  country,  is  liable  to  the 
penalty  of  human  laws? 

If  this  is  not  the  case,  there  is  no  justice 
in  the  court  of  heaven,  and  the  laws  given 
with  so  much  terror  from  the  Almighty'8 
throne,  like  the  statutes  of  children,  or  the 
Pope's  bulls,  are  only  '-^hmta  fulmina^'^ — 
words  without  efiect,  and  thunders  without 
lightnings. 

Some  indeed  flatter  themselves  that  "  the 
law,  since  the  Gospel  dispensation,  abates 
much  of  its  demands  of  perfect  love."  But 
their  hope  is  equally  unsupported  by  reason 
and  Scripture.  The  law  is  the  eternal  rule 
of  right,  the  moral  picture  of  the  God  of 
holiness  and  love.  It  can  no  more  vary 
than  its  eternal,  unchangeable  Original. 
The  Lord  "  will  not  alter  the  thing  that  has 
gone  out  of  his  mouth."    He  must  cease  to 


180  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PART  IV. 

be  what  he  is,  before  his  law  can  lose  its 
power  to  bind  either  men  or  angels;  and  all 
creatures  shall  break  sooner  than  it  shall 
bend;  for  if  it  commands  us  only  to  "love 
God  with  all  our  heart,  and  our  neighbor 
as  ourselves,"  what  just  abatement  can  be 
made  in  so  equitable  a  precept?  Therefore, 
man  who  breaks  the  righteous  law  of  God 
as  naturally  as  he  breathes,  is  and  must 
continue  under  its  fearful  curse,  till  he  has 
secured  the  pardon  and  help  oflered  him  in 
the  Gospel. 

THIKTY-THLRD    ARGUMENT. 

Nor  is  the  Gospel  itself  without  its  threat- 
enings;  for  if  the  Lord,  on  the  one  hand, 
"opens  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  all  be- 
lievers," he  declares,  on  the  other,  that 
"they  all  shall  be  damned  who  believe  not 
the  truth,"  when  it  is  proposed  to  them  with 
suiScient  evidence;  and  that  "he  who  be- 
lie veth  not  is  condemned  already,  lecause 
he  hath  not  believed  on  the  name  ot  the 
only-begotten  Son  of  God."  2  Thess.  ii. 
12;  John  iii.  18.  From  these  awful  declar- 
ations I  draw  the  following  argument: 

K  faith  is  so  essential  a  virtue,  how  de- 
praved and  wretched  is  man  who  is  so  ex- 
cessively slow  of  heart  to  believe  the  things 
that  concern  his  salvation !  Matter  of  fact 
daily  proves  that  wo  readily  admit  the  evi- 
dence of  men,  while  we  peremptorily  reject 


Part  iv.J         matter  of  fact.  181 

the  testimony  of  God.  Commodore  Byron's 
extraordinary  account  of  the  giants  in  Pata- 
gonia is,  or  was,  every  where  received ;  but 
that  of  Jesus  Christ,  concerning  those  who 
"  walk  in  the  broad  way  to  destruction,"  is 
and  has  always  been  too  generally  disre- 
garded.    Matt.  vii.  13. 

On  reading  in  a  newspaper  an  anony- 
mous letter  from  Naples,  we  believe  that 
rivers  of  liquid  fire  flow  li-om  the  convulsed 
bowels  of  a  mountain,  and  form  burning 
lakes  in  the  adjacent  plains :  but  if  we  read 
in  the  Scripture  that  Tophet,  the  burning 
lake,  is  prepared  of  old  for  the  impenitent, 
we  beg  leave  to  withhold  our  assent ;  and, 
unless  Divine  grace  prevents,  we  must  fall 
in,  and  feel,  before  we  will  assent  and  be- 
lieve.    Isa.  XXX.  33. 

Who  that  has  seen  a  map  of  Africa  ever 
doubted  whether  there  is  such  a  kingdom 
as  that  of  Morocco,  though  he  never  saw- 
it,  or  any  of  its  natives?  But  who  that  has 
perused  the  Gospel,  never  doubted  whether 
"the  kingdom  of  heaven  within  us,"  or  that 
state  of  ''righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  in 
the  Holy  Ghost,"  which  God  opens  to  be- 
lievers upon  earth,  is  not  a  mere  imagina- 
tion? though  Christ  himself  invites  us  to  it, 
and  many  piuus  ])ersons  not  only  testify 
they  enjoy  it,  but  actually  show  its  blessed 
fruits,  in  lieavenly  tempers,  a  blameless  life, 


182  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PART    IV. 

and  a  triumphant  death.  Mark  i.  14;  Luke 
xvii.  21;  Rom.  xiv.  17;  Rev.  i.  6. 

With  what  readiness  do  we  depend  upon 
an  honest  man's  promise,  especially  if  it  is 
reduced  into  a  bond?  But  with  what  re- 
luctance do  we  rely  on  the  "many  great 
and  precious  promises''  of  God,  ^'confirmed 
by  an  oath,"  delivered  before  the  most  un- 
exceptionable witnesses,  and  sealed  by  the 
blood  of  Je^us  Christ?  2  Pet.  i.  4;  2  Cor. 
i.  20;  Heb.  vi.  17. 

And  ye  numerous  tribes  of  patients,  how 
do  ye  shame  those  who  call  themselves 
Christians!  So  entire  is  the  trust  wdiich 
you  repose  upon  a  physician's  advice,  whom 
perhaps  you  have  seen  but  once,  that  you 
immediately  abstain  from  your  pleasant 
food,  and  regularly  take  medicines,  which, 
ibr  what  you  know,  may  be  as  injurious  to 
your  stomach  as  they  are  offensive  to  your 
palate;  but  we  who  profess  Christianity 
generally  quarrel  with  Christ's  prescrip- 
tions ;  and  if  we  do  not  understand  the 
nature  of  a  remedy  wliich  he  recommends, 
we  think  this  a  sufficient  reason  for  refus- 
ing it.  From  Christ  only,  if  we  can  help 
it,  we  will  take  nothing  upon  trust. 

One  false  witness  is  often  sufficient  to 
make  us  believe  that  a  neighbor  vows  to  do 
us  an  injury ;  but  twenty  ministers  of  elesus 
can  not  persuade  us  God  hath  sworn  in  his 


PART  IV.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  183 

wrath,  that,  if  we  die  in  our  sins,  we  shall 
not  enter  into  his  rest;  Psa.  xcv.  11.  or 
that,  if  we  come  to  him  for  pardon  and  life, 
he  will  in  no  wise  cast  ns  out.  John  vi. 
37.  The  most  defamatory  and  improljable 
reports  spread  with  uncommon  swiftness, 
and  pass  for  matter  of  fact ;  but  when  St. 
Paul  testifies,  that  if  any  man  hath  not  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  he  is  none  of  his,  Eom. 
viii.  9.  who  believes  his  testimony?  Does 
not  the  same  mind  that  was  open  to  scanda- 
lous lies,  prove  shut  against  such  a  revealed 
truth? 

Isaiah  asks,  ''Who  hath  believed  our  re- 
port?" and  Jesus  says,  "When  the  Son  of 
man  cometh,  shall  he  find  faith  upon  the 
earth  ?"  Alas !  there  would  have  been  no 
room  for  these  plaintive  questions,  if  the 
word  of  God  had  not  been  proposed  to  our" 
faith ;  for  the  most  groundless  and  absurd 
assertions  of  men  find  multitudes  of  be- 
lievers. We  see  daily,  that  an  idle  rumor 
about  a  peace  or  a  war  meets  with  such 
credit  as  to  raise  or  sink  the  stocks  in  a  few 
hours. 

It  is  evident  that  man  has  a  foolish  and 
evil  heart  of  unbelief,  ready  to  strain  out  a 
gnat  in  divine  revelation,  while  he  greedily 
swallows  up  the  camel  of  human  imposture. 
l^ow,  if  it  is  part  of  the  Gospel  which  Christ 
commands  his  ministers  to  preach  to  every 
creature,  that  he  who  believeth  not  shall  be 


184  AN    APPEAL   TO  [j'AET    IV. 

damned,  Mark  xvi.  16.  how  great  is  the 
depravity,  and  how  imminent  the  danger  of 
fallen  man,  who  has  such  a  strong  propen- 
sity to  so  destructive,  so  damnable  a  sin  as 
unbelief? 

THIRTY-FOUKTH    AKGUMENT. 

But  let  us  come  still  nearer  to  the  point. 
If  we  are  not  by  nature  conceived  in  sin, 
and  children  of  wrath,  millions  of  infants, 
who  die  without  actual  sin,  have  no  need 
of  the  blood  of  Christ  to  wash  their  robes, 
nor  his  Spirit  to  purify  their  hearts.  The 
incarnation  of  the  eternal  Word,  and  the  in- 
fluences of  the  Holy  Spirit,  are  as  unneces- 
sary to  them  as  the  visits  of  a  physician, 
and  his  remedies,  to  persons  in  perfect 
health.  Their  spotless  innocency  is  a  suf- 
ficient passport  for  heaven ;  baptism  is  ridic- 
ulous, and  the  Christian  religion  absurd,  in 
their  case. 

Nor  does  it  appear,  why  it  might  not  be 
as  absurd  with  regard  to  the  rest  of  man- 
kind, did  they  but  act  their  part  a  little  bet- 
ter ;  for  if  we  are  naturally  innocent,  we 
have  a  natural  power  to  remain  so;  and  by 
a  proper  use  of  it,  we  may  avoid  standing 
in  need  ot*  the  salvation  procured  by  Christ 
for  the  lost. 

Nay,  if  innocent  nature,  carefully  improv- 
ed, may  be  the  way  to  eternal  life,  it  is  cer- 
tainly the  readiest  way,  and  the  Son  of  God 


PAKT  IV.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  185 

speaks  like  the  grand  deceiver  of  mankind, 
when  he  says,  ''I  am  the  way;  no  man 
cometh  to  the  Father,  but  hy  meP  Chris- 
tians, let  self-conceited  Deists  entertain  the 
thought,  but  harbor  it  not  a  moment;  in 
you  it  would  be  highly  blasphemous. 

THIRTY-FIFTH  ARGUMENT. 

And  that  you  may  detest  it  the  more,  con- 
sider farther  that  all  the  capital  doctrines 
of  Christianity  are  built  upon  that  funda- 
mental article  of  our  depravity  and  danger. 
If  all  flesh  hath  not  corrupted  its  way,  how 
severe  are  those  words  of  Christ,  "Except 
ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  perish;"  and,  ''Ex- 
cept ye  be  converted,  ye  shall  not  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  heaven ! "  K  all  are  not 
carnal  and  earthly  by  their  first  birth,  how 
absurd  is  what  he  said  to  Nicodemus:  "Ex- 
cept a  man  be  born  again,  he  can  not  see 
the  kingdom  of  heaven!"  If  there  is  any 
spiritual  health  in  us  by  nature,  how  noto- 
riously false  are  these  assertions !  A 11  our 
sufficiency  is  of  God — Without  me  ye  can 
do  nothing.  K  every  natural  man  is  not 
the  reverse  of  the  holiness  in  which  Adam 
was  created,  how  irrational  these  and  the 
like  Scriptures :  If  any  man  is  in  Christ,  he 
is  a  new  creature  /  In  Christ  Jesus  neither 
circumcision  availeth  anything,  nor  uncir- 
cumcision,  but  a  new  creature.  To  con- 
clude: if  mankind  are  not  universally  cor- 


186  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PABT  IV 

rupt,  guilty,  and  condemned,  how  unneces- 
sarily alarming  is  this  declaration :  He  that 
believeth  not  on  the  Son  of  God  is  condemn- 
ed already ;  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on 
him:  and  if  we  are  not  foolish,  unrighte- 
ous, unholy,  and  enslaved  to  sin,  why  is 
Christ  made  to  us  of  God,  wisdom,  righte- 
ousness, sanctification,  and  redemption? 
Take  away,  then,  the  doctrine  of  the  fall, 
and  the  tower  of  evangelical  truth,  built  by 
Jesus  Christ,  is  no  more  founded  on  a  rock, 
but  upon  the  sand :  or,  rather,  the  stately 
fabric  is  instantly  thrown  down,  and  leaves 
no  ruins  behind  it  but  the  dry  morality  of 
Epictetus,  covered  with  the  rubbish  of  the 
wildest  metaphors,  and  buried  in  the  most 
impertinent  ceremonies. 

THIKTY-SIXTH   ARGUMENT. 

One  more  absurdity  still  remains.  If  man 
is  not  in  the  most  imminent  danger  of  de- 
struction, nothing  can  be  more  extravagant 
than  the  great  article  of  the  Christian  faith, 
thus  expressed  in  the  Nicene  creed :  "  Je- 
sus Christ,  very  God  of  veiy  God,  by  whom 
all  things  were  made,  for  us  men,  and  for 
our  salvation,  came  down  from  heaven,  was 
made  man,  and  was  crucified /(^r  -w^." 

Is  it  not  astonishing  that  there  should  be 
people  so  infatuated  as  to  join  every  Lord's 
day  in  this  solemn  confession,  and  to  deny, 
the  other  six,  tlie  horrible  danger  to  which 


PART  IV. J  MATTER   OF   FACT.  18'/ 

they  are  exposed,  till  they  have  an  interest  Id 
Christ!  Is  not  the  least  grain  of  common 
sense  sufficient  to  make  an  attentive  person 
see,  that  if  He,  by  whom  all  things  wore 
made,  came  from  heaven  for  our  salvation 
—if  he  was  made  man  that  he  might  sufFor, 
and  be  crucified  for  us  he  saw  us  guilty,  con- 
demned, lost,  and  obnoxious  to  the  damna- 
tion which  we  continually  deprecate  in  the 
litany  '\  Shall  we  charge  the  Son  of  God,  in 
whom  are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  divine 
wisdom,  with  the  unparalleled  folly  of  com- 
ing from  heaven  to  atone  for  innocent  crea- 
tures ;  to  reprieve  persons  uncondemned ; 
to  redeem  a  race  of  free  men ;  to  deliver 
from  the  curse  a  people  not  accursed ;  to 
hang  by  exquisitely- dolorous  wounds,  made 
in  his  sacred  hands  and  feet,  on  a  tree  more 
ignominious  than  the  gallows,  for  honest 
men,  and  very  good  sort  of  people ;  and  to 
expire  under  the  sense  of  the  wrath  of  Heav- 
en that  he  might  save  from  hell  people  in 
no  danger  of  going  there. 

Reader,  is  it  possible  to  entertain  for  a 
moment  these  wild  notions,  without  offering 
the  utmost  indignity-to  the  Son  of  God,  and 
the  greatest  violence  to  common  sense? 
And  does  not  reason  cry,  as  with  a  sound 
of  a  thousand  trumpets,  "  If  our  Creator 
could  not  save  us  consistently  with  his  glo- 
rious attributes,  but  by  becoming  incarnate, 
passing  through  the  deepest  scenes  of  hu 


188  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PAKT  17. 

miliation  and  temptation,  distress  and  want, 
for  thirty-three  years,  and  undergoing,  at 
last,  the  most  shameful,  painful,  and  accurs- 
ed death,  in  our  place,  our  wickedness  must 
be  desperate,  our  sins  execrable,  our  guilt 
black  as  the  shadow  of  death,  and  our  dan- 
ger dreadful  as  the  gloom  and  torments  of 
hell  ?" 

"Shocking  doctrine!"  says  the  self-con- 
ceited moralist,  as  he  rises  from  his  chair 
full  of  indignation,  and  ready  to  throw  aside 
the  arguments  he  cannot  answer.  Eeader, 
if  you  are  the  man,  remember  that  this  is  an 
appeal  to  reason,  and  not  to  passion — to 
matter  of  fact,  and  not  to  vitiated  taste  for 
pleasing  error.  You  may  cry  out  at  the 
sight  of  a  shroud,  a  coffin,  a  grave,  "  Shock- 
ing objects!"  But  your  loudest  exclama- 
tions will  not  lessen  the  awful  reality,  by 
which  many  have  happily  been  shocked 
into  a  timely  consideration  of,  and  prepara- 
tion for,  approaching  death. 

"But  this  doctrine,"  you  still  urge, 
"  drives  people  to  despair."  Yes,  to  a  de- 
spair of  being  saved  by  their  own  merits 
and  righteousness  ;  and  this  is  as  reasona- 
ble in  a  sinner  wlio  comes  to  the  Savior  as 
despairing  to  swim  across  the  sea  is  ration- 
al in  a  passenger  that  takes  ship. 

A  just  despair  of  ourselves  is  widely  dif- 
ferent from  a  despair  of  God's  mercy,  and 
Christ's  willingness  to  save  the  chief  of  sin- 


PART  IV.]  MATTER   OF    FACT.  189 

ners,  who  flies  to  him  for  refuge.  Thi8  hor- 
rible sin,  this  black  crime  of  Judas,  springs 
rather  from  a  sullen,  obstinate  rejection  of 
the  remedy,  than,  as  some  vainly  suppose, 
from  a  clear  knowledge  of  the  disease. 
And  that  none  may  commit  it,  Christ's 
ministers  take  particular  care  not  to  preach 
the  law  without  the  Gospel,  and  the  fall 
without  the  recovery :  no  sooner  have  they 
opened  the  wound  of  sin,  festering  in  the 
sinner's  conscience,  than  they  pour  in  the 
balm  of  Divine  promises,  and  make  gra- 
cious offers  of  a  fi-ee  pardon  and  full  salva- 
tion by  the  compassionate  Redeemer,  who 
came  to  justify  the  ungodly,  and  save  the 
lost. 

And,  indeed,-  those  only  who  see  their 
sin  and  misery,  will  cordially  embrace  the 
Gospel ;  for  common  sense  dictates  that 
none  care  for  the  king's  mercy  but  those 
who  know  they  are  guilty,  condemned  crim- 
inals. How  excessively  unreasonable  it  is 
then  to  object,  that  the  preaching  of  man's 
corrupt  and  lost  estate  drives  people  to  de- 
spair of  divine  mercy,  when  it  is  absolutely 
the  only  means  of  showing  them  their  need 
of  it,  and  making  them  gladly  accept  it 
upon  God's  own  terms. 

Leaving,  therefore,  that  trite  objection  to 
the  unthinking  vulgar,  once  more,  judicious 
reader,  summon  afl  your  rational  powers, 
and,  after  imploring  help  from  on  high  to 


190  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PART  IV. 

use  them  aright,  say,  whether  these  last  ar- 
guments do  not  prove  that  no  Christian  can 
deny  the  complete  fall  of  mankind,  without 
renouncing  the  capital  doctrines  of  his  own 
religion — overturning  the  very  foundation 
of  the  Gospel,  which  he  professes .  to  receive 
— staining  the  glory  of  the  Kedeemer,  whom 
he  pretends  to  honor,  and  impiously  taking 
from  his  crown,  wisdom,  truth,  and  charity, 
the  three  jewels  that  are  its  brightest  orna- 
ments. Sum  up,  then,  all  that  has  been 
advanced  concerning  the  afflictive  dealings 
of  God's  providence  with  mankind,  and  the 
base  conduct,  or  wicked  temper  of  mankind 
toward  God,  one  another,  and  themselves — 
declare  if  all  the  arguments  laid  before  you, 
and  cleared  from  the  thickest  clouds  of  ob- 
jections that  might  obscure  them,  do  not 
cast  more  light  upon  the  black  subject  of 
our  depravity  than  is  sufficient  to  show  that 
it  is  a  melancholy  truth — and  finally  pro- 
nounce, whether  the  doctrine  of  our  corrupt 
and  lost  estate,  stated  in  the  words  of  the 
sacred  writers,  and  of  our  pious  reformers, 
is  not  rationally  demonstrated  and  estab- 
lished upon  the  firmest  basis  in  the  world, 
matter  of  fact  and  the  dictates  of  common 
Bense. 


PART  v.]  MATTER    OF   FACT.  191 


FIFTH  PART. 

W^HEN  a  doctrine  has  been  clearly  dem- 
onstrated, the  truths  that  necessarily  spring 
fi'om  it  cannot  reasonably  be  rejected.  Let, 
then,  common  sense  decide,  whether  the  fol- 
lowing consequences  do  not  necessaiily  re- 
sult from  the  doctrine  of  the  fall,  established 
in  the  preceding  parts  of  this  treatise. 

Inference  1.  if  we  are  by  nature  in  a 
corrupt  and  lost  estate,  the  grand  business 
of  ministers  is  to  rouse  our  drowsy  con- 
sciences, and  warn  us  of  our  imminent  dan- 
ger. It  behooves  them  to  cry  aloud  and 
spare  not,  to  lilt  up  their  voice  like  a  trum- 
pet, and  show  us  our  transgressions  and 
our  sins.  Nor  are  they  to  desist  from  this 
unpleasing  part  of  their  office  till  we  awake 
to  righteousness,  and  lay  hold  on  the  hope 
set  before  us. 

If  preachers,  under  pretense  of  peace  and 
good-nature,  let  the  wound  fester  in  the  con- 
science of  their  hearei-s,  to  avoid  the  thank 
less  office  of  probing  it  to  the  bottom — it!> 
for  fear  of  giving  them  pain  by  a  timely 
amputation,  they  let  them  die  of  a  mortifi- 
cation— or  if  they  heal  the  hurt  of  the 
daughter  of  God's'  people  slightly,  saying, 
Peace !  Peace !  when  there  is  no  peace — ■ 
they  imitate  those  sycophants  of  old,  who, 
for  fear  of  displeasing  the  rich,  and  offend- 


1D2  AN  ArrEA'L  TO  [fart  v. 

ino^  the  o;reat,  preaclied  sniiootli  thiiio^s,  and 

I'll' 
prophesied  deceit. 

This  cruel  gentleness,  this  soft  barbarity, 
is  attended  with  the  most  pernicious  conse- 
quences, and  will  deservedly  meet  with  the 
most  dreadful  punishment.  Give  sinners 
warning  from  me,  says  the  Lord  to  every 
minister ;  when  I  say  t6  the  wicked,  the 
unconverted,  Thou  shalt  surely  die,  and 
thou  givest  him  not  warning,  he  shall  die 
in  his  iniquity,  in  his  unconverted  state; 
but  his  blood  will  I  require  at  thy  hand. 
See  Matt,  xviii.  3  ;  Ezek.  iii.  18;  and  xii.  10. 

Inference  2.  If  we  are  naturally  deprav- 
ed and  condemned  creatures,  self-righteous- 
nesg  and  pride  are  the  most  absurd  and 
monstrous  of  all  our  sins.  The  deepest  re- 
pentance, and  profoundest  humility,  be- 
come us.  To  neglect  tliem,  is  to  stumble 
at  the  very  threshold  of  true  religion  ;  and 
to  ridicule  them  is  to  pour  contempt  upon 
reason,  revelation,  and  the  first  operations 
of  divine  grace  on  a  sinner's  heart. 

Inference  3.  K  the  corruption  of  man- 
kind is  universal,  inveterate,  and  amazingly 
powerful,  no  mere  creature  can  deliver  them 
from  it.  They  must  remain  unrestored,  or 
they  must  have  an  almighty,  omniscient, 
omnipresent,  unwearied,  infinitely -patient 
Savior,  willing,  day  and  night,  to  attend  to 
the  wants  and  public  or  secret  applications 
of  millions  of  wretched  souls,  and  able  to 


PART  v.]  MATTEK    OF    FACT,  l^S 

give  them  immediate  assista-nce  throughout 
the  world,  in  all  their  various  trials,  temp- 
tations, and  the  conflicts  both  in  life  and  in 
death.  Is  the  most  exalted  creature  suffi- 
cient for  these  things  ? 

When  such  a  vast  body  as  mankind, 
spread  over  all  the  earth  for  thousands  of 
years,  made  up  of  numerous  nations,  all  of 
which  consist  of  multitudes  of  individuals, 
each  of  whom  has  the  springs  of  all  his  fac^ 
ulties  and  powers  enfeebled,  disordered,  or 
broken — when  such  an  immense  body  as 
this  is  to  be  restored  to  the  image  of  the  in- 
finitely-holy, glorious,  and  blessed  God, 
common  sense  dictates  that  the  amazing 
task  can  be  performed  by  no  other  than  the 
original  Artist,  the  great  Searcher  of  hearts, 
the  omnipotent  Creator  of  mankind. 

Hence  it  appears,  that,  notwithstanding 
the  cavils  of  Arius,  the  Savior  is  Ood  over 
ull  blessed  for  ever ;  all  things  were  made 
by  him,  he  upholds  all  things  by  the  word 
of  his  power,  and  every  believer  may  adore 
him,  and  say  with  the  wondering  apostle, 
when  the  light  of  faith  shone  into  liis  be- 
nighted soul.  My  Lord  and  my  God  % 

Inference  4.  If  om-  guilt  is  immense,  it 
<jan  not  be  expiated  without  a  sacrifice  of 
infinite  dignity.  Hence  we  discover  the 
mistake  of  heathens  and  carnal  Jews,  who 
trusted  in  the  sacrifice  of  beasts,  the  eiTor 
of  Deists,  Mohammedans,  and  Socinians, 

13 


lOi  AN    APPEAL    TO  [PAKT    V, 

who  see  no  need  of  any  expiatory  sacrifice 
and  the  amazing  presumption  of  too  many 
Christians,  who  repose  a  considerable  part 
of  their  confidence  in  the  proper  merit  of 
their  worL^,  instead  of  placing  it  entirely  in 
the  infinitely  meritorious  sacri'fice  of  the 
immaculate  Lamb  of  God,  humbly  acknowl- 
edging that  all  the  gracious  rewardableness 
of  the  best  works  of  faith  is  derived  from  his 
precious  blood  and  original  merit. 

Inference  5.  If  our  spiritual  maladies 
are  both  numerous  and  mortal,  it  is  evident 
we  can  not  recover  the  spiritual  health  that 
we  enjoyed  in  our  first  parents,  but  by  the 
powerful  help  of  om-  heavenly  Physician, 
the  second  Adam.  How  absurd  is  it  then 
to  say,  that  we  are  saved,  or  recovered,  by 
doing  good  works,  without  the  quickening 
grace  of  a  Savior! 

A  wretched  beggar  is  lame,  both  in  his 
hands  and  feet.  An  officious  man,  instead 
of  taking  him  to  a  person  famous  for  his 
skill  in  relieving  such  objects  of  distress, 
assures  him  that  the  only  way  of  getting 
well  is  to  run  of  errands  for  his  prince,  and 
work  for  his  fellow  beggars.  You  justly 
wonder  at  the  cruelty  and  folly  of  such  a 
director,  but  you  have  much  more  reason  to 
be  astonished  at  the  conduct  of  those  mis- 
erable empirics  who  direct  poor,  blind,  lame 
sinners,  laboring  under  a  complication  of 
,  spiritual  disorders,  and  sick  even  to  eternal 


Par't  v.]  matter  op  fact.  105 

death,  to  save  themselves  merely  by  serving 
God  and  doing  good  to  their  neighbors,  as 
if  they  needed  neither  repentance  toward 
God,  nor  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  nor 
yet  free  grace  to  enable  them  to  repent,  be- 
lieve, and  serve  God  acceptably. 

How  much  more  rational  is  the  evangel- 
ical method  of  salvation !  We  are  saved, 
eays  the  apostle,  we  are  restored  to  saving 
health,  and  a  spiritual  activity  to  serve  God 
and  our  neighbor,  not  by  works,  not  of  our- 
selves, but  by  grace,  by  mere  favor,  through 
faith,  through  such  an  entire  confidence  in 
our  Physician  as  makes  us  gladly  take  his 
powerful  remedies,  abstain  Irom  the  pleas- 
ing poison  of  sin,  and  feed  on  those  divine 
truths  which  communicate  angelical  vigor 
and  happiness  to  our  souls.     Eph.  ii.  8. 

Inference  6.  If  our  nature  is  so  com- 
pletely fallen,  and  totally  helpless,  that  in 
Bpiritual  things  we  a»'e  not  sufficient  of  our- 
selves to  think  any  thing  truly  good  as  of 
oui'selves,  but  our  sufficiency  is  of  God,  it 
is  plain  we  stand  m  absolute  need  of  his 
Spirit's  assistance,  to  enable  us  to  pray,  re- 
pent, believe,  love.  And  obey  aright.  Con- 
sequently, those  who  ridicule  the  Holy  Spi- 
rit and  his  sacred  influence,  despise  the 
great  helper  oi  our  infirmities,  and  act  a 
most  inational;  wicked,  and  desperate  part* 
Rom.  vin.  iJ'j 

Inficrejic F  *?.     K  by  nature  we  are  really 


190  AJf   APPEAL   to  [PAJJT  V, 

and  truly  born  in  sin,  our  regeneration  can 
not  be  a  mere  metaphor,  or  a  vain  ceremo- 
ny— our  spiritual  birth  must  be  real  and 
positive.  How  fatal,  therefore,  is  the  mis- 
take of  those  who  suppose  that  the  new 
birth  is  only  a  figurative  expression  for  a 
decent  behavior  I  How  dreadful  the  error 
of  those  who  imagine  that  all  whose  faces 
have  been  typically  washed  with  material 
water  in  baptism,  are  now  effectually  born 
again  of  living  water  and  the  Holy  Spii'it ! 

Inference  8.  If  the  fall  of  mankind  in 
Adam  does  not  consist  in  a  capricious  im- 
putation of  his  personal  guilt,  but  in  a  real, 
present  participation  of  his  depravity,  im- 
potence, and  misery,  the  salvation  that  be- 
lievers have  in  Christ  is  not  a  capricious 
imputation  of  his  personal  righteousness, 
but  a  real,  present  participation  of  his  puri- 
ty, power,  and  blessedness,  together  with 
pardon  and  acceptance. 

Unspeakably  dangerous,  then,  is  the  de^ 
lusion  of  those  whose  brains  and  mouths  are 
filled  with  the  notions  and  expressions  of 
imputed  righteousness,  while  their  poor, 
carnal,  unregenerate  hearts  remain  perfect 
strangers  to  the  Lord,  our  righteousness. 

Inference  9.  If  the  corrupt  nature  which 
sinners  derive  fi'om  Adam  spontaneously 
produces  all  the  wickedness  that  overspreads 
the  earth,  the  holy  nature  which  believers 
receive  from  Christ  is  also  spontaneously 


PART  v.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  197 

productive  of  all  the  fruits  of  righteousness 
described  in  the  oracles  of  God — good  works 
springing  out,  necessarily  *  of  a  true  and 
lively  faith. 

Such  ministers,  therefore,  as  clearly 
preach  our  fall  in  Adam,  and  that  faith 
in  Christ  which  is  productive  of  genuine 
holiness  and  active  love,  will  infallibly  pro- 
mote good  works  and  pure  morality,  when 
those  who  insist  only  upon  works  and  moral 
duties  will  neither  be  zealous  of  good  works 
themselves,  nor  instrumental  in  turning 
sinners  from  their  gross  immoralities.  The 
reason  is  obvious:  evangelical  preachers 
follow  their  Lord's  wise  direction:  Make  the 
tree  good,  and  the  fruit  shall  be  good  also: 
but  moralists  will  have  corrupt  trees  bring 
forth  good  fruit,  which,  in  tiie  nature  of 
things,  is  impossible.  Matt.  xiii.  33;  Luke 
vi.  43.  Therefore,  as  nothing  but  iaith 
makes  the  tree  good,  and  as  without  iaith 
it  is  impossible  to  please  God,  the  Christian 
that  will  come  to  him  with  good  works 
must  not  only  believe  [as  heathens]  that  lie 
is,  and  that  lie  is  a  rewai'der  of  those  who 
diligently  seek  him,  but  also  that  he  was  in 
Christ  reconciling  the  world  to  himself,  etc. 
Inference  10.  If  corruption  and  sin 
work   so   powerfully   and    sensibly  in   thij 

»  This  is  to  be  understood  of  a  moral,  and  not  of  an 
absolute,  irresistible  necessity  ;  for  faith  never  unmans 
the  believer. 


198  AN    APPEAL    TO  [PART  V. 

hearts  of  the  imregenerate,  we  may,  without 
deserving  the  name  of  enthusiasts,  affirm 
that  the  regenerate  are  sensible  of  the  pow- 
erful effects  of  divine  grace  in  their  souls ; 
or,  to  use  the  words  of  our  seventeenth  ar- 
ticle, we  may  say,  They  feel  in  themselves 
the  workings  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ;  for, 
where  the  poison  of  sin  hath  abounded,  and 
has  been,  of  course,  abundantly  felt,  grace, 
the  powerful  antidote  that  expels  it,  does 
much  more  abound,  and,  consequently,  may 
be  much  more  perceived. 

Therefore,  the  knowledge  of  salvation  by 
the  forgiveness  of  sins,  the  assurance  of 
faith,  and  the  peace  of  God  passing  all  un- 
derstanding, are  the  experienced  blessings 
of  the  converted,  as  certainly  as  a  guilty 
conscience,  the  gnawing  of  worldly  cares, 
the  working  of  evil  tempers,  the  tumults  of 
unbridled  appetites,  and  the  uproars  of  re- 
bellious passions,  are  the  experienced  curses 
of  the  unconverted. 

Reader,  if  these  inferences  are  justly 
drawn,  is  it  not  evident  that  the  princi- 
ples* generally  exploded  among  us,  as  en- 

*  Those  doctrines,  pointed  out  in  the  ten  above  men- 
tioned inferences,  are,  1 .  The  alarming  severity  of  the 
law.  2.  The  need  of  a  deep,  heart-felt  repentance.  3 
The  divinity  of  Christ.  4.  The  infinite  merit  of  his  sac 
rifice.  5.  Salvation  by  faith  in  him.  6.  The  influ- 
ence of  his  Holy  Spirit.  7.  The  reality  of  the  new 
birth.  8.  The  necessity  of  a  present  salvation.  9.  The 
zeal  of  believers  for  good  works ;  and,  lU.  The  com- 
fortable assurance  which  they  have  of  their  regeneration. 


PART  \.j  MATTER    OF    FACT.  19^ 

thusiastical  or  methodistical,  flow  from  the 
doctrine  demonstrated  in  this  treatise,  as 
naturally  as  light  from  the  sun?  These 
consequences  lead  you  perhaps  farther  than 
you  could  wish ;  but  let  them  not  make  you 
either  afraid  or  ashamed  of  the  Gospel. 
Prejudices,  like  clouds,  will  vanish  away ; 
hut  ti-uth,  which  they  obscure  for  a  time, 
like  the  sun,  will  shine  for  ever.  A  great 
man  in  the  law  said,  J^iat  justitia^  mat 
fmundus.  Improve  the  noble  sentiment, 
.^nd  say  with  equal  fortitude,  Stet  Veritas^ 
mat  imtndus — Let  truth  stand,  though  the 
universe  should  sink  into  ruins. 

But,  happily  for  us,  the  danger  is  all  on 
the  side  of  the  opposite  doctrine ;  and  that 
you  may  b3  convinced  of  it,  I  present  you 
next  with  a  view  of  the 

DREADFUL    CONSEQUENCES 

NECESSARILY     RESULTING     FROM     THE     IGNORANCE     OF     OUR 
DEPRAVITY     AND    DANGER. 

1.  As  the  tempter  caused  the  fall  of  our 
first  parents,  by  inducing  them  to  believe 
that  they  should  not  surely  die  if  they  broke 
the  Divine  law,  so,  now  we  are  fallen,  he 
prevents  our  recovery,  by  suggesting  "  the 
bitterness  of  death  is  past,"  and  "we  are  in 
a  state  of  safety."  Hence  it  is  that  you 
«leep  on  in  carnal  security,  O  ye  deluded 
sons  of  men,  and  even  dream  ye  are  safe 
jand  righteous-     Nor  can  ye  escape  for  your 


300  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PAIJT  T. 

lives,  till  the  vail  of  unbelief  is  taken  away, 
and  ye  awake  to  a  sight  of  your  corrapt  and 
lost  estate ;  for  there  is  no  guarding  against, 
nor  flying  from,  an  unseen,  unsuspected 
evil.  Here,  as  in  a  conspiracy,  the  danger 
continually  increases,  till  it  is  happily  dis- 
covered. 

2.  K  we  are  not  sensible  of  our  natural 
corruption,  and  the  justice  of  the  curse  en- 
tailed upon  us  on  that  account,  can  we  help 
thinking  God  a  tyrant,  when  he  threatens 
unconverted  moralists  with  the  severest  of 
his  judgments,  or  causes  the  black  storms 
of  his  providence  to  overtake  us  and  our 
dearest  relatives? 

Answer,  ye  self-righteous  Pharisees,  that 
BO  bitterly  exclaim  against  the  ministers 
who  declare,  by  the  authority  of  Scriptm-e, 
that.  Except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  perish. 
Answer,  fond  mother,  whose  tears  of  dis- 
traction mix  with  the  cold  sweat  of  the  con- 
vulsed, dying  infant  on  thy  lap.  Dost  thou 
not  secretly  impeach  divine  Justice,  and 
accuse  Heaven  of  barbarity  ?  Ah  1  if  thou 
didst  but  know  the  evil  nature  which  thou 
and  thy  Isaac  have  brought  into  the  world  ; 
if  thou  sawest  the  root  of  bitterness  which 
the  hand  of  a  gracious  Providence  even 
now  extracts  from  his  heart,  far  from  being 
ready  to  curse  God  and  die  with  thy  cliild, 
thou  wouldst  patiently  acquiesce  in  the 
kindly-severe    dispensation,   thou    wouldst 


PART  v.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  2Ul 

clear  him  when  he  is  judged  by  such  as 
thyself,  and  even  glorify  him  in  the  evil 
day  of  this  painful  visitation. 

3.  Though  man's  heart  is  hardened  as 
steel,  it  does  not  frequently  emit  the  hellish 
sparks  of  such  murmurings  against  God, 
because  it  can  seldom  be  struck  by  the  flint 
of  such  severe  afflictions ;  yet  the  mischief 
is  there,  and  will  break  out,  if  not  by  blas- 
phemous despair,  at  least  by  its  contrary — 
presumptuous  madness.  Yes,  reader,  un- 
less thou  art  happily  made  acquainted  with 
the  strength  of  thy  inbred  depravity,  thou 
wilt  rashly  venture  among  the  sparks  of 
temptation  —  with  carnal  confidence  thou 
wilt  ask,  "What  harm  can  they  do  me?" — 
And  thou  wilt  continue  the  hazardous  spoi-t, 
till  sin  and  wrath  consume  thee  together. 
Nor  will  this  be  more  surprising  than  that 
one  who  carries  a  bag  of  gunpowder,  and 
knows  not  the  dangerous  nature  of  his  load, 
should  fearlessly  rush  through  the  midst  of 
flames,  or  sparks,  till  he  is  blown  up  and 
destroyed. 

4.  This  fatal  rashness  is  generally  accom- 
panied with  a  glaring  inconsistency.  Do 
not  you  make  the  assertion  good,  ye  saints 
of  the  present  age,  who  pretend  to  have 
found  the  secret  of  loving  both  God  and  the 
world  'i  Do  not  we  hear  you  deny  to  men 
that  you  are  condemned,  and  yet  cry  to  God 
to  have  mercy  upon  you  ?     But  if  you  are 


^02  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PAET  Y, 

not  condemned,  what  need  have  you  of  mer- 
cj  ?  And  if  you  are,  why  do  you  deny  your 
lost  estate?  Thou,  too,  reader,  wilt  fall  into 
this  absurdity,  unless  thou  knowest  thy  just 
condemnation.  But  the  mischief  will  not 
stop  here ;  for, 

6.  Ignorance  of  the  mystery  of  iniquity 
within  you  must,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
cause  you  to  neglect  prayer,  or  to  pray  out 
of  character.  As  unhumbled  moralists,  in- 
stead of  approaching  the  throne  of  grace 
with  the  self-abasement  of  the  penitent  pub- 
lican, saying,  God  be  merciful  to  me,  a  sin- 
ner, you  will  provoke  the  Most  High  by  the 
open  profaneness  of  the  Sadducee,  or  insult 
him  by  the  self-conceited  services  of  the 
Pharisee,  boasting  jq  do  no  harm,  and 
thanking  God  ye  are  not  as  other  men.  On 
these  rocks  your  formal  devotion  will  split, 
till  you  know,  that,  as  the  impenitent  and 
prayerless  shall  perish,  so  the  Lord  accepts 
no  penitential  prayer  but  that  of  the  man 
who  knows  the  plague  of  his  own  heart, 
because  he  alone  prays  in  his  own  charac- 
ter, and  without  hypocrisy.  1  Pet.  v.  5  ;  1 
Kings  viii.  38. 

6.  And  as  you  can  not  approach  the 
throne  of  grace  aright,  while  you  remain  in- 
sensible of  your  corruption,  so  the  reading 
or  preaching  of  God's  word,  till  it  answers 
the  end  of  conviction,  is  of  no  service  to 
you,  but  rather  proves,  to  use  St,  Paul's 


PART   V.J  MATTER   OF    FACT.  20^ 

nervous  expression,  the  savor  of  death  unto 
death ;  for  when  the  terrors  of  the  law  only 
suit  your  case,  you  vainly  catch  at  the  com- 
forts of  the  Gospel,  or,  rather,  you  remain 
as  unaffected  under  the  threateuings  of  the 
one  as  under  the  promises  ot  the  other ;  you 
look  on  Mount  Sinai  and  on  Mount  Sion 
with  equal  indifference,  and  the  warmth  of 
the  preacher  who  invites  you  to  fly  from  the 
WYSith  to  come,  appears  to  you  an  instance 
of  religious  madness.  Nor  is  it  a  wonder 
it  should,  while  you  continue  unacquainted 
with  your  danger;  when  a  mortal  disease 
is  neither  felt  nor  suspected,  a  pathetic  ad- 
dress upon  its  consequences  and  cure  must 
be  received  by  any  reasonable  man  with  the 
greatest  unconcern,  and  the  person  that 
makes  it  in  earnest  must  appear  exceeding- 
ly ridiculous.     Again: 

7.  My  people  are  destroyed  for  lack  of 
knowledge,  says  the  Lord.  This  is  true, 
particularly  with  regard  to  the  knowledge 
of  our  depravity.  Reader,  if  thou  remain- 
est  a  stranger  to  it,  thou  wilt  look  upon 
slight  confession  of  outward  sins  as  time  re- 
pentance, and  the  godly  sorrow,  that  work-  • 
eth  repentance  to  salvation,  will  appear  to 
thee  a  symptom  of  melancholy.  Taking  an 
external  reformation  of  manners,  or  a  change 
of  ceremonies  and  opinions,  for  true  conver- 
sion, thou  wilt  think  thyself  in  a  safe  state, 
while  thy  heart  continues  habitually  wander- 


204  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PART  V. 

ing  from  God,  and  under  the  dominion  of  a 
■worldly  spirit.  In  a  word,  some  of  the 
branches  ot*  the  tree  of  corruption  thon  may- 
est  possibly  lop  oil',  but  the  root  will  still  re- 
main and  gather  strength :  for  it  is  plain 
that  a  bad  root,  supposed  not  to  exist,  can 
neither  be  heartily  lamented,  nor  earnestly 
struck  at  with  the  ax  of  self-denial. 

Even  a  heathen  could  say,  ''  The  knowl- 
edge of  sin  is  the  first  step  towards  salva- 
tion from  it ;  for  he  w^ho  knows  not  that  he 
sins,  will  not  submit  to  be  set  right ;  thou 
must  find  out  what  thou  art  before  thou  canst 
mend  thyself ;  therefore,  when  thou  discov- 
erest  thy  vices,  to  which  thou  wast  before 
a  stranger,  it  is  a  sign  that  thy  soul  is  in  a 
better  state. 

8.  It  is  owing  to  the  want  of  this  discov- 
ery, O  ye  pretended  sons  of  reason,  that, 
thinking  yourselves  born  pure,  or  supposing 
the  diseases  of  your  nature  to  be  inconsid- 
erable, you  imagine  it  possible  to  be  your 
own  physicians,  when  you  are  only  your 
own  destroyers.  Hence  it  is,  that,  while 
you  give  to  Jesus  the  titular  honor  of  Sav- 
ior, you  speak  perpetually  of  being  "  saved 
merely  by  your  duties  and  best  endeavors." 
Hear  him  warning  you  against  this  common 
delusion :  O  Israel,  says  he,  thou  hast  de- 
stroyed thyself,  but  in  me  is  thy  help  tound. 
The  whole  need  not  a  physician,  but  they 
that  are  sick,  beyond  all  hopes  of  recovering 
themselves. 


PART  v.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  205 

9.  The  prescriptions  of  this  wise  Thysi- 
cian  are  excessively  severe  to  flesh  and 
blood,  and  some  [)f  his  remedies  as  violent 
as  om*  disease.  Therefore,  except  we  see 
the  greatness  of  our  danger,  we  shall  beg  to 
be  excused  from  taking  the  bitter  potion. 
Who  can  have  resolution  enough  to  cut  off 
a  riglit  hand,  pluck  out  a  right  eye,  to  take 
up  his  cross  daily,  to  deny  himself,  and  lose 
even  his  own  life,  or  what  is  often  dearer, 
his  fair  reputation?  Who,  I  say,  can  do 
this,  till  a  sight  of  imminent  ruin  o*i  th©  one 
hand,  and  of  redeeming  love  on  the  other, 
makes  him  submit  to  the  painful  injunc- 
tions? Thou  lovely  youth,  noted  in  the 
Gospel  for  thy  harmlessness,  I  appeal  to  thy 
wretched  experience.  When  the  Physician 
of  souls,  at  whose  feet  thou  wast  prostrate, 
commanded  thee  to  sell  all  and  follow  him, 
what  made  thee  go  away  sorrowful  and  un- 
done? Not  barely  thy  great  possessions, 
but  the  ignorance  of  thy  condition ;  for  all 
that  a  man  hath  will  he  give  for  his  life, 
when  he  sees  it  in  immediate  danger.  Matt, 
xix.  22. 

10.  If  it  is  a  desperate  step  to  turn  away 
from  the  Prince  of  life,  it  is  a  daring  one 
to  approach  him  with  a  mere  compliment. 
Of  this,  nevertheless,-  you  are  guilty,  ye  un- 
awakened  sinners,  who  daily  appear  before 
the  throne  of  grace,  with  thanks  and  praises 
to  God  for  his  inestimable  love  in  the  re- 


^ 


206  Ai?   APPEAL   to  [PAR^.    /. 

deinptioii  of  the  world  by  our  Lord  Jewus 
Christ.  Alas  !  when  you  deny  the  state  of 
sin  and  misery  in  which  you  are  b}^  nature, 
and  yet  presume  to  thank  -God  for  redemp- 
tion from  it,  do  you  not  mock  him  as  sol-- 
emnly  as  you  would  the  king,  were  you  to 
present  him  every  day  an  address  of  thanks 
for  redeeming  you  from  Turkish  slavery, 
when  you  never  knew  yourselves  slaves  in 
Turkey?  O,  how  provoking  to  God  must 
these  unmeaning  thanksgivings  be !  Sure- 
ly, one  day,  they  will  be  ranked  among  the 
indignities  offered  by  earthly  worms  to  the 
•Majesty  on  high. 

11.  Some,  indeed,  more  consistent  than 
you,  openly  throw  off  the  mask.  Seeing 
neither  the  unfathomable  depth  of  their  mis- 
ery by  the  fall,  nor  the  immense  liight  of 
their  aggravated  iniquities,  they  do  not 
trifle  with,  but  at  once  deny,  the  Lord  that 
bought  them.  Yes,  far  from  admiring  the 
established  method  of  a  salvation  procured 
at  so  immense  a  price  as  the  incarnation 
and  crucifixion  of  the  Son  of  God,  they  are 
not  afraid  to  intimate  it  is  irrational ;  and 
upon  their  principle  they  may  well  do  it, 
for,  if  our  ruin  is  not  immense,  what  need 
is  there  lor  an  innnensely  glorious  Redeem- 
er? And  if  our  guilt  reaches  not  up  to 
heaven,  why  should  the  Son  of  God  have 
come  down  from  thence,  to  put  away  sin  by 
the  sacrifice  of  himself? 


TART  v.]  MATTER   OF   FACT.  2'n7' 

12.  As  we  slight  or  reject  the  Savior,  till 
we  are  truly  convinced  of  the  evil  and  dan- 
ger of  sin,  so  we  worship  a  false  god — a 
mere  idol;  for,  instead  of  adoring  Jehovah, 
infinite  in  his  holiness  and  hatred  of  sin,  in- 
violable in  the  truth  of  his  threatenings 
against  it,  and  impartial  in  his  strict  jus- 
tice— a  God  in  whose  presence  mihumbled 
sinners  are  not  able  to  stand,  and  with 
whom  evil  can  not  dwell,  we  bow  to  a 
strange  god,  whom  pious  men  never  knew, 
— a  god  formed  by  our  own  fancy,  so  unholy 
as  to  connive  at  sin,  so  unjust  as  to  set 
aside  his  most  righti-ous  law,  and  so  false 
as  to  break  his  solemn  word,  that  we  must 
turn  or  die.  Ezek.  xxxiii.  11.  Is  not  this 
worshiping  a  god  of  our  own  making?  or, 
as  David  describes  him,  a  god  altogether 
such  as  om'selves?  To  adore  an  idol  of 
paste,  made  by  the  baker  and  the  priest, 
may  be  indeed  more  foolish,  but  cannot  be 
more  wicked,  than  to  adore  one  made  by 
our  wild  imagination  and  impious  unbelief. 

13.  We  may  go  one  step  farther  still,  and 
affirm,  that,  till  we  are  deeply  convinced  of 
sin,  far  from  worshiping  the  true  God ;  which 
implies  knowing,  loving  and  admiring  him 
in  all  his  perfections — we  hate  and  oppose 
him  in  his  infinite  holiness  and  justice. 
The  proof  is  obvious  :  two  things  diametri- 
cally opposite  in  their  nature  can  never  be 
approved  of  at  once.    K  we  do  not  side  with 


f^08  AN   APPEAL  TO  [part  t, 

divine  Holiness  and  Justice,  ablior  our  cor- 
ruption, and  condemn  ourselves  as  hell-de- 
serving sinnei-s,  far  from  approving,  we  shall 
rise  against  the  holy  and  righteous  God, 
who  sentences  us  to  eternal  death  for  our 
sin:  w^e  shall  at  least  wish  he  were  less 
pure  and  just  than  he  is  ;  which  amounts  to 
wishing  him  to  be  no  God.  While  proud 
iiends  betray  this  horrid  disposition  by  loud 
blasphemies  in  hell,  ye  do  it,  O  ye  uncon^ 
vinced  sons  of  men,  by  your  aversion  to 
godliness  upon  earth.  Haters  of  God  is, 
then,  the  proper  name,  and  enmity  against 
him  the  settled  temper,  of  all  unhumbled, 
unconverted  sinners.  Rom.  i.  30,  and 
viii.  7. 

14.  When  the  nature  of  God  is  mistaken, 
what  wonder  if  his  law  is  misapprehended  ? 
The  law  is  good,  says  St.  Paul,  if  a  man  use 
it  lawfully ;  but  if  we  make  an  improper 
use  of  it,  the  consequence  is  fatal.  Since 
the  fall,  the  law  of  God,  as  contradistin- 
guished from  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  points 
out  to  us  tl?e  spotless  holiness  and  inflexible 
justice  of  its  divine  Author.  It  teaches  us 
with  what  ardor  and  constancy  we  should 
love  both  our  Creator  and  our  fellow- crea- 
tures. As  a  bank  cast  against  the  stream 
of  our  iniquity,  it  accidentally  serves  to 
make  it  rise  the  higher,  and  to  discover  its 
impetuosity ;  for  by  the  law  is  the  knowl- 
edge of  sin.     It  demonstrates  man's  weak- 


PABT  v.]  MATTER    OF   FACT.  209 

ness,  who  consents,  indeed,  to  the  law  that  it 
is  good,  but  finds  not  how  to  fulfill  it.  Rom. 
vii.  16,  19.  As  a  battery  erected  against 
our  pride,  when  it  has  its  due  efiect,  it  si- 
lences all  our  self-righteous  pleas,  and  con- 
vinces us  that  a  returning  sinner  is  not  jus- 
tified by  the  works  of  the  law,  but  by  the 
faith  of  Christ ;  a  broken  law — a  law  which 
worketh  wrath,  being  absolutely  unable  to 
absolve  its  violator.  In  a  word,  it  is  our 
school-master  to  bring  us  to  Christ,  and 
drives  us  with  the  rod  of  threatening  pun- 
ishments, to  make  us  touch  the  scepter  of 
mercy  held  out  to  us  from  the  throne  of 
grace. 

But  while  we  remain  strangers  to  our 
helpless  and  hopeless  state  by  nature,  far 
from  making  this  proper  use  of  the  law,  we 
trust  in  it,  and  fancy  that  the  merit  of  our 
unsprinkled  obedience  to  it  is  the  way  of  sal- 
vation. Thus  we  go  about  to  establish  our 
own  righteousness,  making  light  of  the 
atoning  blood  which  marks  the  new  and 
living  way  to  heaven.  This  very  mistake 
ruined  the  Pharisees  of  old,  and  destroys 
their  numerous  followers  in  all  ages.  Rom. 
ix.  31. 

15.  And  when  we  form  such  wrong  ap- 
prehensions of  the  law,  is  it  possible  that 
we  should  have  right  views  of  the  Gospel, 
and  receive  it  with  cordial  afiection  ?  Rea- 
son and  experience  answer  in  the  negative. 
14 


^'0  AN    APPEAL    TO  [PAR'     f, 

What  says  the  Gospel  to  sinners^  Yoiiure 
saved  ly  grace^  through  mere  favor  and 
mercy,  not  by  the  covenant  of  works,  lest 
any  man  should  boast,  like  the  Pharisee. 
Eph.  ii.  8.  Now,  ye  decent  formalists,  ye 
fond  admirers  of  your  own  virtue,  are  you 
not  utterly  disqualified  to  seek  and  accept  a 
pardon  in  the  Gospel  way  ?  for  your  seek- 
ing it  upon  the  footing  of  mere  mercy,  im- 
plies an  acknowledgment  that  you  deserve 
the  ruin  threatened  against  sinners.  And 
supposing  a  pardon  were  granted  you,  be- 
fore you  had  a  consciousness  of  yom-  sad 
deserts,  you  could  not  receive  it  as  an  act 
of  mere  grace,  but  only  as  a  reward  justly 
bestowed  upon  you  for  the  merit  of  your 
works.  It  is  plain,  then,  that,  according  to 
the  Gospel  plan,  none  can  be  fit  subjects  of 
salvation  but  those  who  are  truly  sensible 
of  their  condemnation. 

16.  But  as  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ  is 
the  original  and  properly-meritorious  cause 
of  our  salvation,  so  the  grand,  instrumental 
cause  of  it  is  faith  on  om*  part.  Through 
faith  are  ye  saved,  says  St.  Faul.  Now,  if 
to  have  faith  in  Christ  is  habitually  to  lift 
up  our  hearts  to  him  with  a  humble,  and 
yet  cheerful  confidence,  seeking  in  him  all 
our  wisdom,  righteousness,  and  strength, 
cs  ueliig  our  instracting  prophet,  atoning 
priest,  and  protecting  king,  it  is  evident^ 
that,  till  we  awake  to  a  sight  of  our  fallen 


PAET  v.]  MATTER   OF   FACT.  211 

Btate,  we  cannot  believe,  nor,  consequently, 
be  saved.  O,  ye  that  never  were  sensible 
of  your  spiritual  blindness,  can  you  with 
sincerity  take  Jesus  for  your  ^ide,  and  de- 
sire his  Spirit  to  lead  you  into  all  truth  ? 
Does  not  David's  prayer,  "  Open  thou  mine 
eyes,  that  I  may  see  the  wonderful  things 
of  thy  law,"  appear  to  you  needless,  if  not 
fanatical  ?  And  is  not  the  Redeemer's  pro- 
phetic office  thrown  away  upon  such  sons 
of  wisdom  as  you  are  ? 

Have  you  a  greater  value  for  Jesus  than 
they,  O  ye  just  men,  who  have  no  sensible 
need  of  heart-felt  repentance,  and  whose 
breasts  were  never  dilated  by  one  sigh  un- 
der a  due  sense  of  your  guilt  and  condem- 
nation ?  Can  you,  without  hypocrisy  apply 
to  him  as  the  high  priest  of  the  guilty,  claim 
him  as  the  advocate  of  the  condemned,  or 
fly  to  him  as  the  Savior  of  the  lost !  Im- 
possible !  Ye  fondly  hope  ye  never  were 
lost — ye  were  always  "  good  livers,  good 
believers,  good  Churchmen" — ^ye  need  not 
make  so  much  ado  about  an  interest  in  the 
blood  of  the  new  covenant. 

And  ye  who,  flushed  with  the  conceit  of 
your  native  strength,  wonder  at  the  weak- 
ness of  those  that  continually  bow  to  the 
scepter  of  Jesus'  grace  for  protection  and 
po\t^er,  can  you,  without  a  smile  of  pity, 
hear  him  say,  "  Without  me  ye  can  do  noth- 
ing ?"     Is  it  possible  that  you  should  sin- 


212  AN    APPEAL   TO  [PAKT  V. 

cerely  implore  the  exertion  of  his  royal 
power  for  victory  over  sins,  which  you  sup- 
pose yourselves  able  to  conquer,  and  for  the 
restoration  of  a  nature,  with  the  goodness  of 
which  you  are  already  so  well  satisfied? 
Your  reason  loudly  answers.  No.  There- 
fore, till  you  see  yourselves  corrupt,  impo- 
tent creatures,  you  will  openly  neglect  the 
Kedeemer,  give  to  your  aggi-avated  sins  the 
name  of  "  human  fi-ailties,"  and  trust  to 
your  baffled,  and  yet  boasted  endeavors. 
Self-deception  !  Art  thou  not  of  all  impos- 
tors the  most  common  and  dangerous,  be- 
cause the  least  suspected  ? 

To  sum  up  and  close  these  important  re- 
marks :  Look  at  those  who^  in  mystic  Bab- 
ylon, are  not  truly  sensible  of  their  total  fall 
from  God,  and  you  will  see  them  setting 
their  own  reason  above  the  holy  Scriptures, 
and  their  works  in  competition  with  the  in- 
finitely-meritorious sacrifice  of  Christ.  In- 
quire into  their  principles,  and  you  will  dis- 
cover that  they  either  openly  explode  as 
enthusiastical,  or  slightly  receive,  as  unne- 
cessary, the  doctrines  of  salvation  by  faith 
in  Christ,  and  regeneration  by  the  Spirit  of 
God.  Examine  their  conduct,  and  you  will 
find  they  all  commit  sin,  and  receive  the 
mark  of  the  beast  secretly  in  the  right  hand, 
or  openly  in  their  foreheads.  Rev.  xiii.  16. 
Sort  them,  and  you  will  have  two  bands, 
the  one  of  skeptics  and  the  otlicr  of  formal- 


PART  v.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  213 

ists,  who,  though  at  as  great  enmity  l}etweeu 
themselves  as  Filate  and  Herod,  are,  like 
them,  made  friends  together  by  jointly  de- 
riding and  condemning  Jesus  in  his  living 
members. 

And  if,  with  the  candle  of  the  Lord,  you 
search  the  Jerusalem  of  professing  Chris- 
tians, you  will  perceive  that  the  want  of  a 
heart-felt,  humbling  knowledge  of  their  nat- 
ural depravity,  gives  birth  to  the  double- 
mindedness  of  hypocrites,  and  the  miscar- 
riages or  apostasy  of  those  who  once  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  the  evangelical 
race ;  you  will  easily  trace  back  to  the  same 
corrupt  source  the  seemingly-opposite  errors 
of  the  loose  Antinomian,  and  the  Pharisaic 
legalist,  those  spiritual  thieves  by  whom  the 
sincere  Christian  is  perpetually  reviled ; 
and,  in  short,  you  will  be  convinced,  that, 
if  you  set  your  eyes  upon  a  man  who  is  not 
yet  deeply  conscious  of  his  corrupt  and  lost 
estate,  or  whose  consciousness  of  it  has  worn 
away,  you  behold  either  a  triller  in  religion, 
a  dead-hearted  Pharisee,  a  sly  hypocrite,  a 
loose  Antinomian,  a  self-conceited  formalist, 
a  scoffing  iniidel,  or  a  wretched  apostate. 

,you  see,  reader,  what  a  train  of  fatal  con- 
sequences result  from  rejecting,  or  not  prop- 
erly receiving,  the  doctrine  demonstrated  in 
these  sheets  ;  and  now  that  you  may  c^-  1i- 
ally  embrace  it,  permit  me  to  enumerate 
the— 


214  AN    APPEAL   TO  [pAllT  Y. 


UNSPEAKABLE  ADVANTAGES 

SPEINGINQ  FROM  AN  AFFECTING  KNOWLEDGE  OF  OUR  FALLEN 
AND    LOST    ESTATE. 

No  sooner  is  the  disease  rightly  known, 
than  the  neglected  Jesus,  who  is  both  our 
gracious  Physician  and  powerful  remedy,  is 
properly  valued,  and  ardently  sought.  All 
that  thus  seek,  find :  and  all  that  find  him, 
find  saving  health,  eternal  life,  and  heaven. 

Bear  your  testimony  with  me,  ye  children 
of  Abraham  and  of  God,  who  see  the  bright- 
ness of  a  Gospel  day,  and  rejoice.  Say, 
what  made  you  first  wishfully  look  to  the 
hills,  whence  your  salvation  is  come,  and 
fervently  desire  to  behold  the  sin-dispelling 
beams  of  the  Sun  of  righteo'_sness  ?  Was  it 
not  the  deep,  dismal  night  of  our  fallen  na- 
ture, which  you  happily  discovered  when, 
awakening  from  the  sleep  of  sin,  you  first 
saw  the  delusive  dreams  of  life,  as  they  ap- 
pear to  the  dying?  What  was  the  Desire 
of  nations  to  you  till  you  felt  yourselves  lost 
sinners?  Alas!  nothiiig — perhaps  less  tlian 
nothing — an  object  of  disgust  or  scorn. — 
When  the  pearl  of  great  price  was  preseiifted 
to  you,  did  you  regard  it  more  than  the 
vilest  of  brutes  an  oriental  pearl?  and,  as  if 
it  lu.  1  not  been  enough  to  look  at  it  with 
disdain,  were  not  some  of  you  ready  to  turn 
again,  and  rend,  after  the  example  of  snarl- 


PART  y.J  MATTEK    OF    FACT.  1>]5 

iiig  animals,  those  who  afiectionately  maOc 
you  the  invahmble  oSer?  Matt.  vii.  6. 

But  when  the  storm  that  shook  Mount 
Sinai  overtook  yom*  careless  souls,  and  yo 
saw  yourselves  sinking  into  an  abyss  of 
misery,  did  ye  not  cry  out,  and  say,  as  the 
alarmed  disciples,  with  an  unknown  energy 
of  desire,  "Save,  Lord,  or  we  perish?"  And 
when  conscious  of  your  lost  estate,  ye  began 
to  believe  that  he  came  to  seek  and  to  save 
that  which  was  lost,  how  dear,  how  precious 
was  he  to  you  in  all  his  offices !  How  glad 
were  you  to  take  guilty,  weeping,  Magda- 
len's place,  and  wait  for  a  pardon  at  your 
High  Priest's  feet!  How  importunate  in 
saying  to  your  King,  as  the  hapless  widow. 
Lord,  avenge  me  of  mine  adversary,  my 
evil  heart  of  uabelief!  How  earnest,  how 
unwearied  in  your  applications  to  your 
Prophet  for  heavenly  light  and  wisdom ! 
The  incessant  prayer  of  blind  Bartimeus 
was  then  yours,  and  so  was  the  gracious 
answer  w^hich  the  Lord  returned  to  him; 
you  received  your  spiritual  sight.  And  O ! 
what  saw  you  then  'i  The  sacred  book  un- 
sealed !  Your  sins  blotted  out  as  a  cloud  ! 
The  glory  of  God  shining  in  the  face  of 
Jesus  Christ ;  and  "  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
open  to  all  believers!" 

Then,  and  not  till  then,  you  could  say 
from  the  heart,  Tliis  is  a  faithful  saying,  and 
worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Jesus  Christ 


216  AN    APPEAL   TO  [pART  V. 

came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners,  of 
whom  I  am  the  chief.  1  Tim.  1. 15.  Then 
you  could  cry  out  with  his  first  disciples, 
3ehold  what  manner  of  love  the  Father 
hath  bestowed  upon  us,  that  we  should  be 
called  the  sons  of  God !  1  John  iii.  1.  We 
are  all  the  children  of  God  by  faith  in 
Christ  Jesus,  whom,  having  not  seen,  we 
love;  in  whom,  though  now  we  see  him 
not,  yet  believing,  we  rejoice  with  joy  un- 
speakable and  mil  of  glory,  receiving  the 
end  of  our  faith,  the  salvation  of  our  souls. 
Gal.  iii.  26 ;  1  Peter  i.  8.  We  trusted  in 
him,  and  are  helped;  therefore  our  heart 
danced  for  joy,  and  in  our  song  will  we 

E raise  him.  Fsa.  xxviii.  8.  To  him  that 
ath  loved  us,  and  washed  us  from  our  sins 
in  his  own  blood,  and  hath  made  us  kings 
and  priests  unto  God  and  his  Father;  to 
him  be  glory  and  dominion  for  ever  and 
ever.     Rev.  i.  5. 

And  this  will  also  be  your  triumphant 
song,  attentive  reader,  if,  deeply  conscious 
of  your  lost  estate,  you  spread  your  guilt 
and  misery  before  Ilim  who  came  to  bind 
up  the  broken-hearted,  to  proclaim  liberty 
to  the  captives,  and  the  opening  of  the  pris- 
on to  them  that  are  bound ;  and  to  comfort 
all  that  mourn,  by  giving  them  beauty  for 
ashes,  the  oil  of  joy  for  mourning,  and  the 
garment  of  praise  for  the  spirit  of  heaviness. 
&a.  Ixi.  1.     Your  sorrow,   it  is  true,  may 


PAKT    v.]  MAITER    OF    FACT.  217 

endure  for  a  night,  but  joy  will  come  in  the 
morning,  the  joy  of  God's  salvation,  and 
the  pardon  of  your  sins.  Having  much  for- 
given you,  you  mil  then  love  much,  and 
admire  in  proportion,  the  riches  of  divine 
Wisdom,  Goodness,  Justice,  and  Power, 
that  so  graciously  contrived,  and  so  wonder- 
fally  executed  the  plan  of  your  redemption. 
You  will  be  ravished  in  experiencing  that 
a  condemned  sinner  can  not  only  escape  im- 
pending ruin,  but  enter  into  present  posses- 
sion of  a  spiritual  paradise,  where  peace  and 
joy  blossom  together,  and  whence  welcome 
death,  will,  ere  long,  translate  your  tri- 
umphant soul  to  those  unseen,  unheard-of, 
inconceivable  glories,  which  God  hath  pre- 
pared for  them  that  love  him.  1  Cor.  ii.  9. 
Nor  will  the  blossoms  of  heavenly  peace 
and  joy  only  diffuse  their  divine  fragrancy 
in  your  soul ;  all  the  fruits  of  holiness  will 
^ow  together  wdth  them,  to  the  glory  of 
God,  and  the  profit  of  mankind.  And  thou 
wilt  not  be  the  last,  thou  fair,  thou  blush- 
ing humility,  to  bend  all  the  spreading 
branches  of  pride  to  the  tree  of  righteous- 
ness. No,  we  can  not  be'vain,  or  despisers 
of  others,  when  we  see  that  we  are  all  cor- 
rupted, dying  shoots,  of  the  same  corrupted, 
dead  stalk;  we  can  not  be  self-righteous, 
when  we  are  persuaded  that  the  best  fruit 
which  we  can  naturally  produce,  is  only 
splendid  sin,  or  vice  colored  over  with  the 


218  AN   APPEAL   TO  [PART  T. 

specious  appearance  of  virtue :  we  must  lie 
prostrate  in  the  dust,  when  we  consider  the 
ignominious  cross,  where  our  divine  Surety 
hung,  bled,  and  died,  to  ransom  our  guilty 
souls. 

A  genuine  conviction  of  our  corruption 
and  demerit  thus  striking  at  the  very  root 
of  our  pride,  necessarily  fills  our  hearts  with 
inexpressible  gratitude  for  every  favor  we 
receive,  gives  an  exquisite  relish  to  the  least 
blessing  we  enjoy,  and  teaches  us  to  say 
with  the  thankful  patriarch,  I  am  not  worthy 
of  the  least  of  all  thy  mercies :  and  as  it 
renders  us  grateful  to  God,  and  all  our  ben- 
efactors, so  it  makes  us  patient  under  the 
greatest  injuries,  resigned  in  the  heaviest 
trials,  glad  to  be  reproved,  willing  to  for- 
give the  faults  of  others,  open  to  acknowl- 
edge our  own,  disposed  to  sympathize  with 
the  guilty,  tender-hearted  toward  the  mis- 
erable, incapable  of  being  offended  at  any 
one,  and  ready  to  do  every  office  of  kind- 
ness, even  to  the  meanest  of  mankind. 

Again:  no  sooner  are  we  properly  ac- 
quainted with  our  helplessness,  than  we 
give  over  leaning  on  an  arm  of  flesh,  and 
the  broken  reed  of  our  own  resolutions. 
Reposing  our  entire  confidence  in  the  living 
God,  we  fervently  implore  his  continual  as- 
sistance, carefully  avoid  temptations,  gladly 
acknowledge  that  the  help  which  is  done 
upon  the  earth  the  Lord  doeth  it  himself, 


FAKT  v.]  MATTER    OF   FACT.  '210 

and  humbly  give  him  the  glory  of  all  the 
good  that  appears  in  ourselves  and  others. 

Once  more :  as  soon  as  we  can  discover 
our  spiritual  blindness,  we  mistrast  our  own 
judgment,  feel  the  need  of  instruction,  mod- 
estly repair  to  the  experienced  lor  advice, 
carefully  search  the  Scriptures,  readily  fol- 
low their  blessed  directions,  and  fervently 
pray  that  no  false  light  may  mislead  us  out 
of  the  way  of  salvation. 

To  conclude :  a  right  knowledge  that  the 
crown  is  fallen  from  om*  head,  will  make  us 
abominate  sin,  the  cause  of  our  ruin,  and 
raise  in  us  a  noble  ambition  of  regaining 
our  original  state  of  blissful  and  glorious 
righteousness.  It  will  set  us  upon  an  earn- 
est inquiry  into,  and  a  proper  use  of,  all  the 
means  conducive  to  our  recovery.  Even 
the  sense  of  our  guilt  will  prove  useful,  by 
helping  to  break  our  obdurate  hearts,  by 
imbittering  the  baits  of  worldly  vanities, 
and  filling  our  souls  with  penitential  soitow. 
Before  honor  is  humility.  This  happy  hu- 
miliation makes  way  for  the  greatest  exalta- 
tion ;  for  thus  saith  the  high  and  lofty  One, 
that  inhabiteth  eternity :  "  I  dwell  in  the 
high  and  holy  pla^e,  with,  him  also  that  is 
of  a  contrite  and  humble  spirit,  to-revive 
the  spirit  of  the  humble,  and  the  heart  of 
the  contrite,  to  fill  the  hungry  with  good 
things,  and  beautify  the  meek  with  salva- 
tion.''   Isaiah  Ivii.  15. 


220  AN   APPEAL   TO     .  rPAR'l    \' 


10 


If'  these  advantages,  which  exceed  tl 
worth  of  earthly  crowns,  necessarily  result 
from  the  proper  knowledge  of  our  corrupt 
and  lost  estate,  who,  but  an  infatuated  ene- 
my of  his  own  soul,  would  be  afraid  of  tliat 
self-science?  who  but  an  obstinate  Pharisee 
would  not  esteem  it,  next  to  the  knowledge 
of  Christ,  the  greatest  blessing  which  Hea- 
ven can  bestow  upon  the  self-destroyed,  and 
yet  self- conceited  children  of  men?  Care- 
less reader,  if  thou  art  the  pei-son — if  re- 
maining unshaken  in  thy  carnal  confidence, 
and  supposing  thyself  wiser  than  seven  men 
that  can  render  a  reason,  thou  not  only  de- 
spisest  the  testimony  of  the  sacred  writers, 
and  our  pious  reformers,  laid  before  thee  in 
the  first  pai-t  of  this  treatise,  but  disregard - 
est  the  numerous  arguments  it  contains, 
tramplest  under  loot  both  matter  of  fact  and 
common  sense,  and  remainest  unaffected  by 
the  most  dreadful  consequences  of  self-ig- 
norance on  the  one  hand,  and  by  the  great- 
est  advantages  of  self-knowledge  on  the 
other,  I  have  done,  and  must  take  my  leave 
of  thee. 

May  the  merciful  and  holy  God,  whose 
laws  thou  dost  daily  violate,  whose  word 
thou  hourly  opposest  or  forgettest,  whose 
salvation  thou  dost  every  moment  neglect, 
whose  vengeance  thou  continually  provok- 
est,  and  whose  cause  I  have  attempted  to 
plead,  bear  with  thee  and  thy  insults  a  little 


PART  v.]  MATTER    OF    FACT.  221 

longer !  May  his  infinite  patience  yet  afford 
thee  some  means  of  conviction  more  effect- 
ual than  that  which  is  at  present  in  thy 
hands !  Or,  shouldst  thou  look  into  this 
labor  of  love  once  more,  may  it  then  answer 
a  better  purpose  than  to  aggravate  thy  guilt, 
and  enhance  thy  condemnation,  by  render- 
ing the  folly  of  thy  unbelief  more  glaring, 
and,  consequently,  more  inexcusable ! 


THE    ENI). 


